Black Dragon Slayer, Kurosaki Ichigo
by Arms of Loneliness
Summary: Ichigo accepted a proposition from Urahara, one that he came to regret. Unfortunately, the said proposition involved dimension travel and he ended up in a world where reishi and reiatsu does not exist. That was until some random dragon came and slapped him with its tail... FEMAcnoIchi
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Urahara is...: Genius or Failure?**

"Until further tests and adjustments are made, this portal will remain unstable," Kurotsuchi Mayuri, the current head of R & D department and the captain of the 12th Division of Gotei 13, said as he slid a pack of research papers across the wooden desk to Urahara Kisuke. The former president of the R & D department stared at the package suspiiously, as if it was laced with poison. "Yamamoto captain-general has asked that you try to stabilize this portal..."

Then with a 'ah,' Urahara picked the folder up and pulled out its contents.

"What exactly is this portal?"

"A crack in the dimension."

"Oh?"

It's been some time sine there had been a crack in the dimension, Urahara thought as he skimmed over the summaries, data charts, graphs, and the pie charts in the packet. Then after a minute, Urahara set the packet down. "Why are you asking me to do this?" Urahara asked.

"Because my research specialities lie within biology and realted mechanics, while yours lie within wormhole physics, related mechanics, and dimension physics," Kurotsuchi put it straight forward. Urahara smirked. "Besides, the captain-general has assigned me a different assignment. Do you remember the abandoned Project Spearhead?"

"The mod soul one?"

"Yes. As of late, the dimension frequency of the human world -as far as I can tell with my equipment- is approaching 3.2 dimension frequency. And you know that that's not good. After all, you are the one who presented the Aligning Dimension Theory."

Urahara had to concede to Kurotsuchi analysis of "not good." In his Aligning Dimension Theory, whenever a dimension approaches another dimension's frequency, they all co-align and become one, increasing their frequency as they continue to co-align with other dimensions. The theory, however, had remained a theory until recently. Neither the DF (Dimension Frequency) of Hueco Mundo, Human World, nor the Soul Society has changed recently (a couple thousand years, give or take). However, it has started to change once more.

"Last time this happened, Hueco Mundo became accessible," Urahara muttered, remembering the ancient data bank that he found in Egypt.

"Yes. Now tell me something that I don't know."

"... Anyway," he said as he flipped out his fan. "If the Human World's DF reaches 3.2., then every single human being will be able to see and touch Hollows as well as shinigamis..."

"And that is the reason why Project Spearhead was revitalized: to provide a means of planet-wide protection for the humans," Kurotsuchi added.

"Where did this guy pop up?" Urahara asked as he waved the research papers.

"Somewhere in the Pacific. But it's not the only one.

"Right now in both the human world and the Soul Society, such portals and opening up everywhere. Well, to be precise, there is only fourteen currently in both Earth and Soul Society, but if our DF continues to come together, I do not doubt that more will appear. As much as I am interested in this entire ... fusing dimension fiasco, I must really be going." Kurotsuchi rose up to leave but Urahara stopped him by snapping his fan shut loudly. "What?"

"Where's the fund?"

* * *

Kurotsuchi left the hat-and-clogs shop, cussing.

* * *

As Urahara looked over the research paper -this time perusing it- he found that the focus of this entire fiasco was not the portal itself nor the fusing dimension. Rather it was on what was on the other side of that portal. No doubt, humans would have already started to research their own portals, but the one in Pacific was sure to be safe... Especially if the readings and datas present on this paper were this low.

"Any human radar would miss it."

Urahara looked up and saw the younger Ishida.

"Oh, hello, Ishida-san!"

"That Kurotsuchi bastard leave you with that?"

"Yup."

"... I don't get how you're going to find it. I highly doubt that you can find it with any radar."

Urahara grinned as Ishida came round to sit down. "So how is Kurosaki-san's training going?"

Ishida cringed at the thought of it. "Don't... remind me about it."

Kurosaki Ichigo, the hero of the Winter War, has been training since he regained his shinigami power after the Fullbringer Incident. Kurosaki was still ... ecstatic about having it back, and he was constantly training with his father, and he often dragged Ishida into sparring with him. The power difference between the two, however, was too great, and Ishida ended up losing every single spar. By Ishida's estimation, the strawberry's reiatsu has incrased by tenfold (minimum) and his physical strength alone was enough to shatter a Everest sized asteroid at half strength. Those two aspects of power increase, however, led Kurosaki to forbid himself from using Bankai, lest the entire town disintegrate under his power. Not that his Bankai was needed when his shikai alone was enough to choke a captain-class being of any kind.

"That's ... unfortunate," Urahara said, covering his lower face with his fan. Of course, he was grinning! "But can you tell Kurosaki-san this?"

"Tell him what?" Ishida asked after a moment of silence.

"I have a job for him."

* * *

**Next morning**, Ichigo was out early. Yuzu noticed that because she was always up early to prepare everyone's breakfast. "Where's he going?" Karin asked groggily as she descended the stairs.

"Don't know," Yuzu said as she scooped up a bowl of steamed rice. "But he didn't eat breakfast!"

Karin shrugged as she sat down on the table. Isshin was still sleeping, Karin noticed. Most likely because Ichi-nii beat the crap out of him yesterday.

"I should wake him up..." Then she went up to the second floor with a hammer in her hand.

* * *

Ichigo stood in front of Urahara's shop with a bag slung over his shoulder. He had graduated only a month ago, and as such, he had time. Especially in this winter when no one was playing in the beach or hiking up a slippery mountain.

"Open up already!" he shouted angrily. But this was Ichigo. He always had something to do. "I need to visit those Yakuza to teach them a lesson!"

"Yara yara, Kurosaki-san. You're so loud..." Urahara said as he opened the door. "...And you're early too."

"Should I come later then?"

"No, no. It's perfectly fine. But we gotta travel to the middle of the ocean, you see... Early is just fine."

"Wait, what?"

"We got to go to the Pacific. Middle of the Pacific to be exact. It's only a few clicks west of Hawaii too."

"Wait, wait, wait! Who said anything about traveling!"

"I'll be your sparring partner."

There was a pregnant silence between the two. They stared at each other without words. Urahara knew that it was a good offer, for Ichigo had been asking for it, but Urahara had been refusing. There was not specific reason behind it, other than the fact that his teacher refused to let him spar with him. That had been frustrating for Ichigo, because he wanted to test his power gauge against his teacher. His father provided an excellent measuring stick, but at the same time, the said man was not a good teacher who can point things how to Ichigo.

"Let's go."

* * *

**Few months later in the middle of Pacific Ocean..**

Kurosaki Ichigo, the hero of Winter War, gulped as he watched the blue and black wormhole in front of him. It looked very ominous by itself, but the organic-like equipment that Urahara bought along made it look more like the gate to hell. "Come on, Kurosaki-san. The gate is ready!"

Ichigo turned around and glared at Urahara.

"You expect me to go through that?" The portal itself looked fine, but inside, there were lightnings and fizzes that made one want to stay away from it, as if it was a time bomb.

"It's perfectly safe, as of the moment," Urahara said.

"As of the moment..." That was supposed to be a reassurance?

Not quite.

Ichigo turned back again, trying to figure out exactly how safe this thing was. Then suddenly as another ligthning struck the event horizon of the wormhole, he felt very unsure. Of course he had sparred with Urahra. It turned out exactly the way he expected, but still.

"I did my part of the deal. Your turn!" Urahra cheered from behind his gigantic equipment. "Besides, all you have to do is just go through, see what's on the other side, and come back."

"What if the portal isn't there?"

"I'm sure you'll find a way," Urahara said as he held up a boxing glove.

"What's that for?"

"Pushing you in, of course."

Ichigo glared at him. "You're not-"

BOING!

The boxing glove was actually a contraption, you see. It has a spring that goes forth about fourty meters.

And Ichigo got hit. He stumbled backward and the wormhole sucked him in.

"Curse you-!"

As if it was a vaccum, the wormhole sucked him in from his world, and pushed him into the next.

"Good luck!" But just as Urahara said so, the machinery around him died down with a high to low biyooooou.

He whirled around. "W-What-?"

Then the gate disappeared with a zap.

"...Crud."

* * *

-AoL-

* * *

When Ichigo woke up -though he didn't remember falling asleep- he found himself hovering in midair.

He shook himself awake and looked about. HE was on a cliff, and not sure exactly how he was hanging.

Snap.

He turned around.

Ah.

His clothes. His red on black t-shirt to be exact.

On a branch.

How cliche-.

SNAP.

Ichigo cursed his own luck as the branch snapped and he felt himself falling down to the river beneath.

Just before he hit the forest canopy, he summoned his Fullbringer ability, one that he took back from Ginjo. Black energy formed a silhouette around Ichigo's shoe and back along the spine.

It was then that Ichigo felt the difference in his reiatsu.

The funny thing was, it no longer felt like a reiatsu but more like a water. Like warm water around him. Reiatsu felt more like a solid skin around him, but this change in his power felt much more light.

He shrugged it off, since the change affected neither his power level nor his ease in which he can bring forth his powers. But not sure of the entire deal, he decided to test it out and unsheathed his giant clever like zanpakuto. "BANKAI!"

A whirlwind immediately surrounded him as changes took place.

Then the winds dissipated as soon as it had begun, and Ichigo was left standing once more in midair. Surprisingly, his clothes had not changed.

He looked at Tensa Zangetsu and grinned. Yup, it was going to be perfectly fine-.

Then he remembered about the entire portal deal and looked around frantically.

No portal was in sight. There was nothing remotely similar to it.

He felt a vein pop up on his forehead. "Damn you, Kisuke!"

Then just as he said that, he was hit by something big and long.

* * *

Acnowlogia didn't expect to have a visitor any time soon. This level of strength was that of a dragon... No. A being higher than a dragon. Without much thought, the black dragon of apocalypse crawled out of its den and into the light.

But there was nothing in sight.

'The fuck?' it thought as it scanned the horizon. The power was here as was the being emitting it. So, where the hell was it?

Then he felt and saw a sudden spike in power. It turned its head towards that direction and its eyes diluted in fear. A black pillar of light that made life all around it scramble away in fear. Or die staying near it.

And it was evil.

Evil.

If its black skin represented a warlord, this black was abyss, the colord of a demon lord.

Though Acnowlogia did not like humans, it loved the world it lived in. And this power was a threat to itself and the world.

"I'll get rid of you...!" Acnowlogia hissed in a deep roaring volume like a thunder as it launched itself towards the pillar.

Then as he got closer, he saw it: a human.

'It's always a human!' it thought as it got ready to launch the first strike. 'They. Always. Cause. Trouble!'

Slam.

And the insect human flew and struck the cliff wall.

"...That was weak," Acnowlogia muttered as it kept itself flying before the cliff, waiting for the human he knew who wasn't dead to come out already.

* * *

Ichigo really hadn't expected something as big and log as what hit him to hit him. It was a total surprise.

But it didn't hurt and he was back up within seconds. "...Ow..."

Ichigo pushed himself out of the crater and kept himself hovering. There were dust clouds of all shades of gray and brown floating about, keeping Ichigo hidden from his attacker. His big attacker. Ichigo glared at the hostile attacker as the dust clouds began to fade away... and he was slightly amazed that it was a very unique looking black dragon.

"Why did you attack me?"

The dragon just growled instead. At the moment, it didn't feel like talking to a insect.

"Oi, I've seen more powerful guys than you, so speak up," Ichigo continued. "I heard you talk."

The dragon growled in return, but it made to aggressive movement against Ichigo. It would be pointless. This man was quite strong. He could easily overpower it even if he didn't use half of his power.

For the first time in a long time, he felt his body give an almost imperceptible rumble of fear.

"Be that way," Ichigo said as he began to walk away to his right. As he left the cliffs, the mountains, and the dragon, he couldn't help but both fume over and be gleeful about the situation he was in. He couldn't see nor feel the portal, and thus, there was no way for him to get back.

"If only -"

Slam.

This time, though, Ichigo blocked the giant tail.

"..." he turned around with his scowl. "One." He began. The dragon was confused, though. One? What was that supposed to mean? "If you mess with strangers, be prepared to pay."

Ichigo grabbed the tail by wrapping his arms tightly around it. And with a heave, he pulled the dragon and threw it against the cliff that it had thrown him into before. The dragon roared as pain spiked throughout its body.

'How strong is this bastard?' it thought as it tried to recover from the blow.

"Two." Crap. "Ethics: Do treat strangers with kindness. Or else, it's bad karma." With that he tightened the already tight hold on the dragon and slammed it once more into the cliff. The dragon roared this time from both pain and bent ego. Ichigo released his grip on the tail and shunpo'ed right up to its face. The awe-inspiring speed in which Ichigo moved at shocked the dazed dragon. It attempted to attack with Breath, but Ichigo grabbed the lower jaw and sent it hurling up. The jaw crashed with the upper jaw, and the breath attack that Acnowlogia tried to blast Ichigo with exploded within its own mouth.

"Three." Shit. "Aren't you going to say sorrY?" Ichigo brought up his leg and did a hammer kick upon his head.

The sheer force of the blow was equivalent to a concentrated nuclear weapon, forced into a small invisible funnel. Neither knew about it, but there was onl one fact about it: it hurt like hell.

The dragon was sent pummeling down, and with a bone-cracking thud, crashed into the ground. A huge dust cloud was thrown up where it was, and Ichigo looked at the spot, satisfied by what he did. This dragon was just like any other bully he "taught." Violence against violence. It worked the best like that.

* * *

'T-This is humiliating...' Acnowlogia thought as it tried to stand up, only to realize that its right foreleg was broken. It roared in pain.

It felt ... helpless. Helpless against this new power. 'Fuck...'

Then suddenly, it felt its body shrinking. 'Shit, magic is leaving me!' But it knew why it was happening. When a dragon becomes too tired to continue in its large, bulky form, it sheds its larger form to take the shape of a human. 'No, I don't want to be a human!' At the same time, Acnowlogia knew that the human form was only a temporary measure until it had healed. 'F-Fuck!'

* * *

When Ichigo didn't see a huge black form as the dust clouds began to settle down, he become worried. Had he used too much power in his last kick? He didn't kill it, did he?

So, he made his way down to the ground with few midair steps. But when he got there, there was nothing there.

The body was missing.

"The hell?"

* * *

Acnowlogia hadn't used its human legs for a while. It's been about four decades since it did. And as such, it felt very, very weak.

"Kyaah!"

Acnowlogia screamed as it tripped over a tree root. It fell down on its side and bounced off.

And then it was right next to the cliff.

But it couldn't stop itself in its current fragile form and then it was right on the edge.

And rolled off.

* * *

"Kyaah!"

That was pretty loud.

But there was no one about as far as Ichigo knew. Which only left... the black dragon.

"Please don't tell me it transformed like some manga."

He quickly shunpo'ed over to the source of the sound.

He was at a cliff.

"Did I hear it wrong?" Ichigo thought as he surveyed behind him, where the forest was. He couldn't feel anything coming from there. In fact, it felt pretty lifeless if Ichigo filtered out the life power -he didn't know how, but he was sensing things in this world- coming from the trees, there was nothing there.

So he turned around... and there.

Right .. beneath him?

He looked down, and he saw a black haired girl dressed in black scale-like one piece hanging unto her dear life by the tree branch that had stuck out of the earth.

"...You don't look so strong now," he grinned. "Dragon."

"S-Shut up and help me!" she growled at him.

"Fine..." With two quick succession of shunpo's, Acnowlogia found herself in Ichigo's strong arms, holding her up in bridal-style.

Acnowlogia was confused for few seconds by the whirl of her surroundings. She actually felt sick, for the sudden movement annoyed her already empty stomach. But then she calmed down and looked about. She was in his arms, bridal-style too, and found that it was comfortable.

Then she had the cuteness to blush after realizing all that. However, she she blushed, she moved her arms, and pain forced her to yelp.

* * *

Ichigo took a detailed note of her facial features a few moments after having rescued her from her demise.

Her face was round with soft-looking lips and cheeks. Her eyes and hair were all black like the skin she wore when she was a dragon.

Then he realized something ... embarrassing about her clothes.

It was really tight on her, especially near the top. His wandering eyes slowlu traveled down from her face to her neck (pale like her face and slim), and then her -.

'GAAAH! What the HELL am I doing?' Ichigo quickly tore his eyes away from her and looked up.

"Ah!"

The yelp was quick and abruptly cut off, but he heard it.

He looked down and he grimaced when he saw her broken arm, swollen and bleeding. But the worst part of it was that there was a bone sticking out of it.

Yeah, he used a bit too much power.

"We're going to need to fix that arm of yours."

She refused to reply. She looked away instead.

"Look, I'm new to this world."

She turned around and looked at him from the corner of her eyes.

"I need to learn. So in exchange for forgetting about our meeting and healing that arm of yours instantly without pain, teach me about this world," he said. "Or I can drop you down the cliff."

She glared at him.

"I'm not scared, 'kid.'"

Indeed, despite her mature looks, she, at the same time, looked like a teenager nearing 20's. 'And you know that that's partially true,' Acnologia thought as she remembered her brief memory of her very old parents. Parents who were 1000 older than their daughter. She was less than 100 years old...

"Look, do we have a deal or not? I'm kind of desperate..."

"...Fine."

"You spoke!" But Ichigo felt happy that he managed to make her speak. He had come to communicate with her, and that was important.

But he still had one thing to worry about: was he stuck here in this new world -as fascinating it was- or will he be able to go back home?

He wanted to know, but there were other things in this world that was currently occupying his mind right now. Like what kind of things she can teach him. Starting with her name.

"What's your name?"

"Acnowlogia."

"Kurosaki Ichigo. Kurosaki is surname and Ichigo is my name."

"... "

"..."

"..."

"So, what do you hate?"

"Humans."

Great, something to fix.

* * *

**Acnowlogia is actually male in both manga and the anime, but who cares. I made it a girl to suit my needs.**

**If you need a mental/visual image of Acnowlogia, imagine a Edolas Wendy. Except with a very, VERY tight black one piece. Tight from the clavicle down to her lower abdomen, and loose from her waist down to her lower shin. And except with a hardened eye like Zeref's.**

**Fixed Post. 4-17-2012**


	2. Chapter 2

**To the reviews and readers alike:**

**I love you for your support ㅠ.ㅠ**

**As for the plot:**

**Ichigo will most likely go with Mirajane since I agree with many of you reviewers. Sorry, no harem.**

**Ichigo moved unto Fairy Tail universe very shortly after the Fullbringer Incident. However, he had very long training and such that raised his power levels more and more to the point that he had to keep Zangetsu in shikai if he didn't want to kill anyone around him with a Bankai-release. Acnowlogia survived because she was pretty strong (captain-class) and happened to be quite a distance away from Ichigo when he released it.**

**When did Ichigo come into Fairy Tail in Fairy Tail plotline? I haven't decided on that yet. But I'm guessing before the entire Edolas incident.**

***Bows***

**I have a question for you readers: would you rather have more fighting or more dialogues? Review your answer.**

**Let the next chapter begin...**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Black Dragon Slayer Magic? What's that?**

And so after having made the agreement with Acnowlogia, Ichigo healed her right arm with a kido he learned from Rukia. Though it took a trial or two to get the kido right, he managed it in the end, and her broken arm was brand new.

In turn, Acnowlogia began to teach him a lot about the world that he was currently in.

Ichigo understood some of it, but not all of it.

There was magic in this world, according to the dragon- Acnowlogia, that was her name. She said that the attack she wanted to use when he kicked her up the jaw was a breath attack -showed him a smaller version of it too.

Acnowlogia coughed after showing Ichigo her breath attack magic, while the said man watched with curiosity and interest in his eyes, though his face remained hard and in a frown. "Do that again."

"No. I'm still weak," she retorted right back at him.

This was Acnowlogia, the self-proclaimed "Terror of Humanity." As far as she was concerned, humans were scared little insects to her that were not worth talking to. Except this man, who was much stronger than her in terms of power. So she kept her head low, and didn't try anything too aggressive towards him, though he had first thought that she would have first few days.

And this was Kurosaki Ichigo, the hero of Soul Society, Seireitei, Karakura Town, and the King's Realm. Which, if everything was put together, meant absolutely nothing where he currently was.

"That was magic. Magic is the physical embodiment of one's spirit. When the spirit or soul comes in contact with a physical body, it creates magic," Acnowlogia began today. Then with a snap of her finger, she created a doll of some sort from thin air that evaporate immediately afterwards. "Magic comes in all size, shape, and structure. And to perform magic, the flow of magic must be great within people. Take note that only few people can actually use magic because the said flow in most people is not good enough. For example, lustful men who goes around sleeping with every other girl usually can't use magic because his soul can't find a place to stay firm. Same goes for women. Dragons, however, can because we generally produce vast quantities of magic, meaning there is a large flow of magic within us."

Ichigo nodded. It was different from reiatsu, which was just purely matters of the soul.

"And magic comes in two parts: casting and holding.

"Casters, mages who use casting spells, expel magic out of themselves. For example, dragon slayer magic, which I used in my breath, is a casting spell.

"Then there are the holders, who use holding spell. Holding spell requires a medium to perform the spell with. And now that I see you... You might be a holder."

"How so?" Ichigo asked with a frown. How can he be a holder when he couldn't use magic right now?

"There is a connection between you and your sword. Very strong connection, actually."

Ichigo shrugged. That was to be. Zangetsu and Tensa Zangetsu, whatever their form, was a part of him. He was part of them. A connection had to exist within one's own soul.

"But at the same time, I don't sense any sort of magic flowing between you two. The flow of magic in you, actually, flows out like a fire." She said as she slowly changed her vision to "magic-sensing" field. Her eyes grew black until the abyss absorbed everything within her eye socket.

Indeed, his magic flows more like a fiery bonfire, Acnowlogia thought as she looked from his magic to hers. Though her magic was fiery within her own body, it was not as big as his. His was a bonfire; hers was a cooking fire... And most mages would not even be an ember.

She switched her vision back and grimaced.

Something big and clumsy moved in her head, forcing gears she has not used in quite a while. Then she had it. The gears moved with rapid speed, processing numerous thoughts and facts within her brain and then everything came to a screeching halt.

"...I'm going to teach you a magic."

"What kind of magic?" Immediate reply. Good.

Her smile stretched from jaw to jaw.

* * *

_"A-Acnowlogia sightings?" Makarov twitched and stuttered at the same time when he heard it. "That just can't be good..." He and the other guild masters were in a sour mood. In their meeting hall, there were no boozes nor music that usually accompanies the annual guild masters' meeting. Instead of all those, there were papers and witnesses who saw the feared black dragon, whose primary role -told by rumors- was the signal the changes of coming times. Makarov looked around and his surprised expression fell grim. "That's the reason why the meeting was so ... dead."_

_"Anything related to that bastard is never good," Goldmine grumbled as he adjusted his black glasses. _

_"Where has it been sighted?"_

_"Just on the mountain ranges outside Fiore..." _

_"Has the Magic Council been informed of this?" another guild master asked._

_"Yes... Our fastest mage went to deliver the letter that I wrote personally," Goldmine said. "I doubt that they'll do anything about it though."_

Makarov sighed as he remembered that meeting. He looked down from his place on the second floor's railings to see his family dancing, laughing, fighting, and eating, oblivious to the news. And they will never know. It had been decided by the counsel that the general population cannot know of it. There will surely be chaos and panic.

"Erza, fight me!" Natsu shouted as he came flying at Erza, but the said women, Titania of Fairy Tail, dodged the jump by sidestepping to the right. Natsu hit the floor and rolled over, ending up upside down against the wooden wall and the cobble floor. "FIGHT ME!"

"Energetic as always, Natsu," Erza said as she moved away from Natsu and sat down in front of Mirajane, who was cleaning the cups at that moment.

"Oh, you're back!" Mira exclaimed. "Did the mission go well?"

Erza looked up to Master, who looked back at her with half-hopeful, half-anxious face. "No, it did not," she replied. Makarov cringed.

Everyone in the room came to a grinding halt.

Erza Scarlet, Titania of Fairy Tail, failed a mission? That was preposterous. Something must be wrong.

'Wait, there is,' Laxus, who had been looking at her right beside his grandfather. 'She just failed a mission.' With that, he gave himself a mental life.

"What happened?" Mira asked, shocked by the news.

"...A dragon attacked me," she said as she re-equipped into her Purgatory Armor. When she did, everyone gawked at the cracks and the holes missing in the armor. "A black dragon... I could have died, but I managed to survive by running away..." She changed back and shuddered.

Makarov cringed. He shouldn't have sent her to do the mission. It was a miracle that she survived. He knew that it was Gilderts who had to do it, but no one currently knew where the man was, let alone a single sighting of the man.

Erza sighed. "Give me a cup of beer."

* * *

Ichigo stared meticulously at his hands, which were now caught on black fire.

"This magic is called Black Dragon Slayer magic," Acnowlogia said. "That's what the humans call any sort of magic attacks dragons use when a human learns them."

Ichigo kept staring at his hands.

"Ichigo?"

"Uh yeah!" Ichigo snapped out of the daze and shook the fire off. "So what was it called again?"

A vein popped up on her forehead. "Black Dragon Slayer Magic."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Why would you teach me something that's meant to kill you?"

She facepalmed. "I just explained that if a human learns a dragon's magic, then that magic is called dragon slayer magic!"

"Wah! Why are you so aggressive?" Ichigo retorted back at her.

She growled and punched him and the face.

With a clean uppercut -which was the only thing she could do effectively considering their height difference- she hit his lower jaw. The blow sent his head snapping backward and Ichigo falling backward. But he quickly regained his balance and his head position. "OW! That hurts!" he complained as he tried to get back at her with his fist. She dodged them, thank goodness, but he managed to grab her dress from behind and pull her. "Eep!"

Now how was he able to hit her without killing her? Simple: he sealed more than half of his power into a seal. It was something Rukia taught him when he couldn't control his overflowing power. It helped him back in Karakura Town -or it would have been obliterated a long time ago.

So he was where he was at before the Dangai training. Just at the right amount of power and strength.

"Damn you Ichigo!" she shouted as fake tear cascaded out of her eyes, trying to keep the dress from being slipped off. Despite how tight the dress looked, Ichigo realized not too long ago, it was very easy to slip one out of it.

He smirked. He let her go and she fell on the soft ground. She got up and shook his fist at him.

"Okay, let's stop. But hurry it up with the magic thingy... stuff."

She smirked. She still had the advantage over him: he knew nothing about this world and was very intent on learning about it.

"Okay. Generally, magic used by mages are converted forms of magic. Let's say Alpha (A) is raw magic a body produces, then mages are able to convert that A into Beta (B). But they do it unconsciously and all the time. Got that so far?" Ichigo nodded. "Mages use this B to perform their magic. Unlike A, however, its power has been significantly reduced. Now, those who use dragon slayer magic must ..."

* * *

After four hour lecture and twenty or so trials, Ichigo sat in front of the cleared section of the forest. He was sweating profusely and had his tongue stuck out like a dog. He was dead tired but he was not dead yet.

"So?" he asked quietly, his throat and the rest of the body tired from the endless magic attacks he had performed until he got the technique right.

Acnowlogia looked at the cleared forest and gulped silently. Usually, learning a magic requires years and practice and learning, but this boy learned it within twelve hours. It was a obvious sign of his exponential learning rate, but at the same time, showed how dangerous this boy was.

"Acnowlogia."

She turned her attention to him, attempting to look as normal as possible. "You did good," she stated simply. There was nothing else to say. He had gotten the basics of dragon slayer magic with impossible precision and put those basics to practical use by performing a Black Dragon's Claw.

"Sorry, but I have nothing to teach you now if you can easily get that down..." Anowlogia muttered. "And I can't teach you about the human world, considering that I don't hang out with insects."

Ichigo just nodded slowly. Then there was a very charming smile that ripped across his face, followed by a boyish smirk of victory. "Then I'll have to find out about that on my own," he said as he picked up Zangetsu. Acnowlogia had to shift away from Ichigo, lest he accidentally chop her head off with that giant machete. But to her surprise, he kept the giant sword very close to himself, and made little movement as possible. She recognized that even during her first meeting with him, but he was doing this on a unconscious daily movement. 'He must have been in a lot of battles. His body is constantly ready... I got him that time by surprise...'

He turned around and looked at her. "What are you staring so intently at me for? Do I have some dirt somewhere?" he asked as he checked his t-shirt and pair of jeans.

To Ichigo, that had been a significant change. Zangetsu, his zanpaktou, was supposed to appear only when he was in his spirit form as a shinigami. However, when he came through to this world with his soul within the body, the soul refused to separate and remained in the body... pushing Zangetsu out.

Or he guessed. He hadn't had the time to confirm his suspicions, but they weren't much of a issue to him as of the moment. He could use Zangetsu, and he was thankful for it.

Ichigo began to walk away, and Acnowlogia guessed that it was done. He had kept his part of the deal, healing her wounds, and she had kept his part of the deal, teaching him as much as she could about this world. But as she watched him walk into the forest towards the nearest town they saw during their fight, she couldn't help but feel that she was going to miss him.

Then he was gone.

She sighed and turned her heel to the opposite direction.

"Aren't you coming?"

She whirled around, surprised by the sudden question.

Ichigo was sticking his head into the clearing from the forest.

"What?"

"Aren't you coming with me?" he asked again.

"W-Why would I?" she asked, both satisfied and baffled by the question. Surprised because she would like to stick with him, but baffled because he was asking her to come to a human town knowing that she regarded humans as insects... Except him.

"Well, you don't know half of your world. Time to learn it," he said as he gestured with his head, pointing to the general direction of the town.

She grinned. "That's good."

"Good?"

"N-Never mind!" she retorted, slightly embarrassed by her own words. "Let's just fine that stupid town!"

As she rushed pass him, Ichigo grinned at her, knowing that they would have a great relationship.

* * *

"Well?"

"That's definitely a good target."

"They're too close to town. Should we wait?"

"Naw, let's just kill them right here..."

With that, the second bandit pulled out his crossbow from under the branches and aimed to kill Ichigo.

* * *

Ichigo heard the conversation -they were tad bit louder than they must've thought- and just as the crossbow arrow came whirling at him, he pulled Zangetsu and with blinding speed, swatted the arrow away. The bandits cursed their luck and gave a whistle.

Soon, bandits popped out from everywhere on the road and surrounded them.

"Now, now, hero. Why don't you just put that sword down and surrender. There is no way you can win all of us," the first bandit that had spoken said as he adjusted his bandana and leather jacket before waving his hand over to his forty of so comrades.

Ichigo just sighed in frustration. Wherever he went, there was trouble somewhere waiting for him. He grabbed Zangetsu by the long chain on its handlebutt and began to swing it.

"I'll tell you exactly the same thing I told this lady here," Ichigo said as the sword began to gain speed.

"One...

"If you mess with strangers, be prepared to pay."

* * *

Ichigo later found himself dragging every single one of the bandits by the rope they had. He had tied all of their wrists and ankles, as to prevent escape, and stripped them naked of all things except their boxers or bras. Acnowlogia had told him that it would be good for him to do so, for they were bandits - someone always will pay to turn in bandits. So Ichigo obliged to the little money-making scheme and dragged them on their backs on the rocky dirt road with all forty in tow as he approached the town.

The town was a very large town, almost a city rather than a town. It had a lot of people going in and out of it as well. But as he passed by the people that were travelling on the same road -and the frequency in which Ichigo and Acnowlogia met people grew as they came closer to the town- they all gasped at him and some cheered.

He felt some hero, though confused as he was by their sudden cheer.

So when he came in front of the gate where the guards were, he tapped the shoulder of one of the guards that was waving off one of the villagers that had entered the city, thus looking at the opposite direction and not noticing Ichigo and his forty bandits. When the guard turned around, he also shrieked in shock but he managed to gain composure. "Why are the people cheering me?" Ichigo asked the guard.

The guard blinked. "You haven't heard about the Dirt Brothers?" he asked and Ichigo and Acnowlogia shook their head. "They were the ones terrorizing the local towns! Even most of the mages ahd trouble dealing with them! How did you do this?"

Ichigo shrugged sheepishly. He really was not used to receiving praise. "I just knocked them all out..." he muttered as the guards opened the gate. He gave them his thanks and walked through the gate and towards the town center.

When he did get there, the mayor of the town rushed out and hugged him. He was a grey bearded and mustached man without head hair.

Ichigo only shrugged it off, and the mayor did two things.

First, he laid a very heavy sack of money in his hand. "You have done us a great favor, youngsters! I hope this will be enough to satisfy you!" he said. Then he asked another favor. "However, this town is not strong enough to keep these forty bandits. We must have them transported to the major city where they will be imprisoned. I cannot, however, call up enough men to do that without japordizing this year's harvest! So I must ask you to transport these bandits to Magnolia, where the federal authority will provide you with handsome reward if you give this piece of memo to them," he said as he quickly scribbled a memo on a piece of paper and stamped it at the end. "It's more like a mayor's signature, but you get the point?"

Ichigo nodded. This town was small, so it was good to move on to this .. Magnolia. "Does Magnolia have a big library?" he asked the mayor who nodded fervently. He shrugged again, and he noticed that he was doing that a lot. "I guess I can do that."

"Oh, thank you! But for now, enjoy a little celebration we're going to throw in your honor!"

Then four bulky men came up to him with robes food and wine. The townspeople were also gathering about as they quickly set up tents and tables.

Ichigo sweatdropped. "W-Wait. I think I'll just go right now..." he began.

"No, no, no... You;ve done us a great favor. We must pay you back!"

"S-STOP!"

* * *

Ichigo hiccuped. Despite being a demigod, he was quite weak to substances like alcohol.

"You are pathetic," Acnowlogia muttered behind him as the man continued to drag the bandits behind him.

"I *hiccup* couldn't help it! They just stormed me in and out! *Hiccup* I couldn't fight back, ya know? Not unless I want to seriously hurt them!" Ichigo complained groggily, the effects of alcohol disturbing his ability to speak clearly.

She just shook her head. "You are still pathetic."

"Fuck you too. *Hiccup*"

She whirled on him. "What'd you say?"

"Fuck-"

POW!

* * *

The bandits behind Ichigo and Acnowlogia watched the two demigods fight. One drunk, the other just plain angry. They stayed quiet, not wanting that anger to be turned up on them.

But they all sighed, knowing that their days as pirates of land was over and a new life of imprisonment would soon begin.

And they were quite right about that.

* * *

It took them two day's journey -since Ichigo didn't want to kill all of the bandits with his hyperspeed movement- to reach Magnolia.

Unlike the first town, Magnolia was a big, bustling trade city with lots of carts and people coming in and out.

'At least I can visit a decent library here...' he thought as he began to drag the bandits, who were now begging for death rather than to be dragged through the city's cobble floor, into the cobble floored city.

He reached what looked like a town center, and he was right about that when the captain of the guard of the city- one could tell from his fancy, caped uniform- came out to see him.

"Yeah, these guys are the Dirt Brothers. Nice job there, hero."

"Thanks."

"Now, here's your reward," the captain said as he gave Ichigo a sack of money. "Now, I know that you'll be quite bored while you stay here. If that does happen, head over to Fairy Tail and see if anyone is up to a fight with you."

"Fairy Tail?"

"Yeah."

"What's Fairy Tail?"

"What? You don't know Fairy Tail, the strongest magic guild in Fiore?"

Both the captain and Ichigo turned around to see a almost pink-haired boy with a white muffler around his neck. Followed by a upright cat.

Upright blue cat.

* * *

**There you go, Natsu and Ichigo had his first meeting in front of Magnolia City will happen?**

**If it involves Natsu, ya all know what's going to happen when he sees a strong guy... XD**


	3. Chapter 3

**Ichigo X Mira or Acnowlogia?**

**To pair or not to pair...**

**UPDATED: 4-21-2012**

** REVISED: 4-22-2012**

**Chapter 3: Ichigo vs. Natsu**

Ichigo instantly knew that Natsu was either part of this Fairy Tail or heavily affiliated with it. But man, did he have to cause trouble like this in the middle of the street?

Ichigo only raised his eyebrows but kept his eye lids the same. "Like I should give a damn about it!" Ichigo replied to Natsu, and then instantly regretting how he had let the fight go on by responding to him. "Everyone's weak to me anyway." Oh well.

Natsu growled at Ichigo. "You wanna fight?"

Ichigo scoffed. "I don't fight kids."

And that was true. Natsu looked like 15, 16 at max, but he was a tall man of early 20's.

"Can you perform magic?"

Ichigo looked at Natsu before he shrugged. "Yeah."

"Then take this! Fire Dragon's...!" Natsu shouted as his magic activated. Ichigo felt his eyes widen as rest of the crowd around backed away.

"Salamander's going nuts again!"

"CLAW!"

Ichigo merely pointed at Natsu as he came flying at him. "Sho."

The magic around Natsu broke off, shattered, and he was sent the opposite way. Natsu went away like a bowling ball on the cobble street and he came to a stop only after making ten successive rolls. He came up, bruised here and there. He was staring at Ichigo with wide eyes.

"W-What was that?" Acnowlogia asked, not familiar with the attack Ichigo used.

"Something I learned before I came here," he whispered to her. "It's called Kido, but it's not magic as far as I'm concerned..."

Acnowlogia looked at him with glares. Was he playing with her? That was definitely magic! She opened her mouth to retort, but stopped when she saw that it indeed was not magic.

When she looked at magic, it gave off a thin silhouette that was almost imperceptible unless she concentrated on it. Hers was black. Ichigo's was also black; meaning a compatible magical affinity: darkness. However, the silhouette had another introduced to it. This time, though, it was no silhouette; it was a dark sipping power that seemed to both gravitate downward and spike into the sky.

It didn't feel like magic, and she was sure that Natsu felt it as well.

Magic was usually warm, with some cases of cold. But this was scorching hot like lava and freezing cold like the emptiness (all metaphors).

It was raw power that wasn't magic.

* * *

"W-What was that?" Natsu asked, bewildered.

"...Magic," Ichigo replied with a blank expression.

"If you say so," Natsu said as he preapred another assault. "Fire Dragon's Breath!"

"Sho."

Natsu went rolling again, and this time, crashed into the wall of the nearby store.

"I can easily do something stronger," Ichigo said, reminding himself and Acnowlogia that this was not the most powerful attack he could manage.

"Try me-!"

WHACK!

Natsu was sent plummeting into the ground just as he got up to make another attack by a gaunleted fist.

Ichigo stared at the scarlet haired woman.

"I told you not to attack strangers!"

"But he - he -!"

"No but's! No missions for you for a month!"

"W-What? That's unfair!"

She glared at him and he shut up about it, only whimpering.

This was, as everyone in the city knew, Erza Scarlet, the Titania (and Dictator) of Fairy Tail. She had supreme authority over everyone except those of the same s-class and the guild master. The city knew that, so they cheered at Erza for stopping Natsu from doing anything more reckless.

Erza turned to Ichigo.

And bowed.

"Sorry for my companion's rude behavior."

Ichigo bowed back, his Asian ethics coming out to play immediately when met with similar traditions.

"However," Erza said as she got up and unsheathed her sword. "I can't let you insult me and other mages of Fairy Tail like that. I'd like you to apologize."

Ichigo got up as well. "Why should I?"

"Then let it be this way," she said as she charged. "Prepare yourself!"

"D-Don't!" Natsu shouted, much to Erza's surprise.

"Sho."

Erza's advance training and muscle memory saw the attack coming, though also as invisible as it was. She jumped to her left to dodge the attack, but her leg got hit anyway.

Instantly, the armor on her right leg broke with a crater-like shape.

She landed gracefully like a cat. She got up slowly, seeing that he didn't attack if not attacked upon. She scrutinized his casual stance and the things he was carrying.

"Why do you not use your sword?"

Ichigo looked over his shoulder.

"You mean Zangetsu?"

"You gave the weapon a name?"

"No, it had a name when I got it," Ichigo replied, reminiscing about how he first met Zangetsu, the protective aspect of his soul. "But why do you ask?"

"I feel insulted since you're not using it."

He raised an eyebrow. "How come?"

"It's like saying that I'm weak, relying only on your magic. Your sword must be stronger since you're not using it." Ichigo frowned. How did she-? "It's quite easy to read someone's thoughts when you expose yourself like that."

Ichigo had to agree with her. He had been in a lot of battles, so he read other's body languages fairly well. Her stance was denoting a more defensive stance despite the fact that she had taken the offensive. And his stance was denoting ... well, boredom.

"You want me to use it? I haven't even used it on my master here," Ichigo said as he gestured to Acnowlogia, who with a gleam in her eyes, looked at him.

"When did I start being your 'master'?" she asked him.

"Since you taught me magic."

"Not that long ago."

"Yes, I do want you to use it," Erza said, interjecting between the two.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow and looked at him but he had expected it. Aside from Acnowlogia, no one had seen him with his full power in active status. And in that active status, he beat her without his sword. Using his sword right now would give him access to enough power to ruin this entire town.

"Then let's go somewhere far from the town. I don't want to have to pay for for any damages," he said as he turned around. Acnowlogia followed him, and they were tailed by a small crowd of townspeople and the two Fairy Tail mages.

"Where are we going?" Erza asked as they headed out.

"... We're going just out of the town. Perhaps somewhere around the lake. But definitely not within the town..."

"If you are so intent on keeping your fights out of town, be my guest," she said as she rushed ahead of him. "Because I know just the place."

Ichigo chuckled at her behavior. It looked like she was really upset about fighting him...

* * *

Erza faced Ichigo off on a cleared area of the forest where she had used to train. There weren't much equipment around; racks here and there, and that was it.

Ichigo held his giant clever like sword in front of him, and she saw his stance. It wasn't a stance of someone that was afraid or nervous. His stance said "I've been through this before. I'm ready to take you on" And so on. It was the stance of a very ... experienced general.

"Lady's first," he grinned. The ladies around, except the one the man called his master, all fawned over the grin. Yes, he was handsome, but nothing to fawn over.

"Be my guest," she said as she charged, knowing that he would try some kind of counter offensive if she closed the distance between the them pretty quickly.

She saw Ichigo's eyes widen almost imperceptibly before she struck from above.

Instead of blocking or counterattacking like she had expected, he dodged. A bit annoyed by the swift movement that she couldn't hold her eyes on, she used her immense strength to stop the sword midstrike and perform a side swipe.

And again he dodged, by a hair's length.

"Slow," Ichigo said as he struck from above.

Erza saw it, and everyone saw it, but it was too fast. Faster than a speeding arrow. Faster than a bullet. But Erza reacted with everything she had and brought her sword up. She placed her free hand on the side of the blade.

But useless.

His sword cleanly through hers without even a single resistance affecting it. Then just before it hit her face, it stopped. She immediately jumped away.

"Do you get it? The difference in power?" he asked, not really wanting to fight against someone who could not even stop his shikai.

"Not yet," she replied as she re-equipped into Heavens Wheel Armor, and swords began to multiple until its number reached 200.

It reminded Ichigo heavily of Byakuya's Senbonzakura Kageyoshi.

But ... "Not enough," he said as he threw his sword up but caught it by the chain. Then with a big swing, he shot Zangetsu forward as the chain extended. The giant clever whooshed through the air and made a sharp cut as it did so. Erza moved all of her sword to intercept it but all broke under the heavy weight of Zangetsu, but her last sword was able to stop it. Ichigo immediately pulled Zangetsu back when he noticed that it had stopped. "Not bad."

She was, however, pale. 199 swords broken with a single strike. 199 swords broken against a single non-magic enhanced sword. How the hell did he manage to keep that powerful arm looking normal? Was it magic?

This time, Ichigo swung his sword.

Acnowlogia's eyes widened. "Everyone, move away!" she shouted. "Before that thing comes around to chop you in half!"

There was silence at first before the large crowd scooted out of the way as fast as possible.

But for one girl, it was too late.

Erza saw the blade coming, and with a fast re-equip into Adamantine Armor, readied herself for a really strong attack. But her eyes widened as the sword, as it came around to her, cut through the tree trunks, some thick as buildings, like paper, and it scared her a bit.

Then the sword struck.

There was no movement.

The two stayed still.

One because he was curious.

The other because she was shocked.

Ichigo pulled his sword back with such a pull that Erza was almost dragged along.

And the crowd gasped at what they saw.

Her armor was cut cleanly through and stopped just few millimeters above her skin.

She watched him with shocked eyes, thinking how ... outclassed she was. This was almost ridiculous. Was this man a human?

Ichigo caught the sword above him and brought it down slowly. "Do I win?"

"No yet..." she replied one more time. Despite feeling outclassed and outpowered, she felt the need to do this. A urge to go against this man. To fight him to measure herself. For this man was surely the strongest. Even Gilderts had trouble going through against her adamantite armor. He was strong... and she liked it. She could go against him with full power. No restraint. No hesitation.

"Re-equip... Purgatory Armor."

It was Acnowlogia's turn to raise her eyebrows. The Purgatory Armor? Wasn't that?

"Won't be strong enough," Acnowlogia muttered to herself, but because she was so focused on watching the conclusion of the fight that she didn't notice Happy, who was right next to her and heard what she said.

"Is that your strongest?"

"It is... No one who has seen it has lived to tell the tale," she replied.

"Then I guess I'll be the first," he replied. But despite his almost sarcastic reply, he was also being serious. Yes, this Purgatory Armor of hers boosted her magic level above a seated officer to a lieutenant, but it was still ... not good enough. After all... he was a captain-level even with his seal on himself. But he admired her courage and persistence to come at him, knowing that she was not going to win. She reminded a bit of him. How he went up against Ulquiorra, knowing that he was going to lose. "Come."

* * *

AoL

* * *

Perhaps an hour later, Erza, Natsu, Acnowlogia, and Ichigo found themselves in front of Fairy Tail.

_"The library is within the guild?"_

_"Yup."_

_"Shit..."_

_"Why?"_

_"Did you forget, I just made a bad appearance." _

_"Oh yeah..."_

But the four ended up in front of Fairy Tail's gates anyway. The last of them gulping a bit. He really didn't want to get on the wrong footing.

Natsu only snickered.

"It's okay as long as you don't pick out anymore fights."

"Oi! I didn't start the fight!" Ichigo replied, a bit offended that she slyly accused him of picking fights. He pointed at Natsu. "This guy -"

Natsu growled and Ichigo withdrew it, and sighed. It would be better to keep this to himself than to go out and start another fight, this time in front of the entire guild that helped to keep the library in good condition. At least, that was how it was according to Erza Scarlet, the woman who fought against him.

"You're going to talk about the fight, right?" Ichigo asked Natsu and Erza, who both nodded as their reply.

"Of course! You're so freakin' awesome and strong! Aside from the fact that you didn't know anything about Fairy Tail..." Natsu began enthusiastically but as he remembered that Ichigo didn't know about Fairy Tail, that enthusiasm grew molds.

"I already told you. I'm not from around here. I didn't even know Fiore existed!" Ichigo protested.

"So you've told us. But tell me, are there others like you from where you come from?" Erza asked him.

He thought about it for a while. In Karakura Town, there were a lot of captains and lieutenants who would be able to easily beat down the stronger mages here. That was a given. However, there really was not people as strong as him. Except Aizen.

"One other. But he was kind of delusional and had to be put under control. He's been rotting in jail for quite some time since I put him down," he replied and sighed. "He betrayed and used a lot of people you see..."

"What happened?" Natsu asked as he registered Ichigo's seriousness.

"He tried to become king... But it failed because I was able to train myself..." he said as he remembered their fight. "We split mountains in half..."

Natsu suddenly felt a chill down his spine. This man was certainly stronger than Gilderts... YAY, more people to fight!

Erza, on the other hand, felt a much different sort of chill.

"That wasn't your full strength?" she asked, a bit terrified by what she had already seen. If this man was stronger than that, then he was most likely stronger than any of Fairy Tail's mages, including the Master.

Acnowlogia chuckled. "That wasn't even tenth of the power he has... At least tenth of the power he used on me when we met the first time," she grinned. "He beat the crap out of me."

"Oh yeah! You've been quiet! What's your name?" Natsu asked, noticing her for the first time in full detail.

A vein popped out of her forehead. "I'm -"

"Natsu!"

The said teenager whirled around just in time to see Gray flying at him from within the guild. Gray headbutted Natsu in the stomach and the two were sent flying further away from the guild. Ichigo and the others, on the other hand, gave different reactions to what they saw. Ichigo was a bit confused as to how the blue haired man was sent flying out, Acnowlogia was pissed off that she couldn't get her introduction across, and Erza was mortified; flying Gray was not the first thing she wanted to show these two.

"What just happened?" Ichigo spoke for himself and Acnowlogia.

"...We're a pretty ... lively guild," Erza began. "It's better to see than hear," she added as she led the two into the guild's hall.

The wooden gates slowly creaked open and Ichigo and Acnowlogia both gawked at what they saw.

There was a bar fight not too far away from them. People drinking. People dancing. People laughing. People ... being lively.

"Wow..." Ichigo muttered quietly. This was indeed ... lively.

Acnowlgia didn't say anything but only looked.

"Yeah," Erza said sheepishly.

"Erza!" Mirajane called out and the entire guild stopped whatever they were doing. Cana hid her barrel of liquor (not that hiding a huge wooden barrel behind her small frame was going to help), Elfman stopped fighting with Loke and few others, and Macao quickly hid his ... something. But it sure looked like a magazine to Ichigo.

'Looks like this girl is this guild's law-and-order,' Ichigo thought as he glanced at Erza.

"We have two guests!" Erza said a bit loudly. She turned from the guild and then to the two. "Introduce yourselves."

"I'm Kurosaki Ichigo, Kurosaki is surname, Ichigo is my name. Nice to meet you all!" Ichigo said casually. Erza glanced at the guild for their reaction and was surprised to see Mirajane ... blushing.

"I'm Aconny Logia. Nice to meet you all," Acnowlogia grinned.

"Now... these two are stronger than me, so don't try picking fights with them. They're only here for the library.. I think," Erza said. "That's all... But Cana, drop the barrel. Cups exist for a reason."

"So what magic do you want to know in that stinking old library?" Loke asked, not really the type to read books and study, and more of the kind that picks fights with them. He was, after all, a stellar spirit by nature (but the guild didn't know about it), not human; humans that tried to understand stellar spirits by books were a bit of assholes... Many of them were at any rate.

"Things," Ichigo replied. The two stared at each other.

"What kind of things?"

"Like the basics of magic."

That got the attention of the entire room.

Loke laughed. He fell and the floor and began pounding the ground, laughing away, while pissed off Ichigo stared at him with a very angry glint in his eyes.

"Y-You don't know! WAAHHHAHAHAHA!"

"Wait, that doesn't make sense... You used magic against me," Erza pointed out and Ichigo shrugged. "If you already know how to use magic, then you probably know the basics..."

Ichigo stood dumbfounded. He had used kido. And kido had a very similar 'feel' to it like magic did. Perhaps what Acnowlogia taught him was the basics?

"Looks like you didn't listen to me again..." Acnowlogia growled. "I told you that what I've taught you was the basics, you idiot! But apparently, someone was to busy playing with rabbits." It was then that Loke got up and got himself close to Acnowlogia. The dragon turned around and whispered something, which made Loke's usual playboy smile go away and his face become pale. He ran away. She smirked and then turned back to Ichigo. While she did this, Ichigo had been complaining. She turned to him, completely oblivious to what he said to her. "What was that?"

Ichigo blushed madly from embarrassment. "I-I did not play with rabbits! I was just feeding them!" he objected but Acnowlogia only grinned back at him, clearly having the upper hand here.

"Oh no, no... You were playing with the rabbits alright."

"That's not playing!"

"But you were laughing and smiling."

Ichigo growled and stalked away. How did she remember all of those ...fleeting moments? Did she have a perfect memory or something?

Setting those thoughts aside, he headed over to what looked like the guild's bartender.

* * *

So he found himself in front of Mirajane at the front of the guild hall with a cup of milk in his hand.

"I kind of expected someone like you to be drinking beer, but not milk," Mirajane said as she set a cleaned cup aside.

"I have little sisters, you see. Drinking in front of them was not really a good thing," he replied and she nodded. "And I couldn't get myself to go out without getting some trouble following my heels."

"I also have a little brother and sister... Had a sister..." Mirajane sighed.

"What happened?" Ichigo asked. There was pain and those last three words. 'Had' was past tense. Was her sister dead or something?

"...We were on a mission together," Mirajane began.

* * *

"I see," Ichigo said quietly after hearing about the story. She had spent less than forty minutes about it, but he got the gist of it.

She was still mourning.

Blaming herself.

Punishing herself.

'She's very much like me... Or I'm very much like a lot of these people here. They all have something that hurts, something that needs to be healed, or something that they are proud of. That's people for you,' he thought to himself as he drew in Mirajane's details. Her white hair reminded him of Toshiro, and her slim body reminded him of Tatsuki. Her blue eyes, however, held a deep sorrow, most likely about her little sister. And overall, she was on the short side, but definitely taller than Rukia.

"... What is it?" she asked when she saw him looking at her so intently. It kind of scared her. "Is there something on me?"

He shook himself out of his trance and grinned. "Nothing," he replied as he turned to Acnowlogia who was having a conversation with some of the more .. knowledgeable members of Fairy Tail. But why she was next to the Second floor of the hall, where it looked like only few members of this guild can go (one can tell by the lack of people there and the lots of zero's by the end of the job post rewards), Ichigo did not know. But she was enjoying herself.

Enjoying herself...

'Che. And she's the one who hates humans,' he thought mentally before letting out a silent chuckle outloud.

"What is it?" Mirajane asked, still curious.

"I like this guild..." he said. "Your people's laugh is ... contagious."

She stared at him with a surprised face and then smiled. "Yup!"

"Well, I'm leaving!" Natsu shouted as he slung his backpack over his shoulders.

"Where?" Mirajane asked.

"To beat the crap out of the guy that is pretending to be me," he said as he laid down a ripped out piece of newspaper.

Mirajane frowned and then nodded. "Go get him."

Natsu went off, but not before giving Ichigo a look full of challange.

'... It'll be fun,' Ichigo thought.

Natsu will be the new Keigo.

* * *

**Adamantine Armor. Read the manga and saw that it was called Hercules armor, but in anime, it's adamantine armor... lol**

**Anyway, I put some more time into doing more research to put this chapter out. Especially on Erza and Mirajane. Thanks for reading, ya'll!**


	4. Chapter 4

**I hate being inconsistent...**

**It won't be IchixMira. Though they would make a great pairing, I can't get my writing to fit them together, especially since Ichigo is travelling and spending more time with Acnowlogia.**

**It will be IchxAcnow. I apologize to some of the readers who might have been excited when I said IchixMira in chapter 2 and 3. **

**It will be Ichi X Acnow.**

**Chapter 4**

"What are you doing?"

Ichigo stirred "awake" and turned to the one who interrupted him. It was Acnowlogia, the black dragon of apocalypse. 'Well, more like a chibi with the power of a dragon,' he added to his thought. However, lengthening his thought chain made a delay in his overall reaction, and that got Acnowlogia pissed.

"Oi, answer me you bastard!" she shouted at him before landing a very well thrown fist into his face.

Unfortunately, after seeing that he had a bit too much power Ichigo had sealed his power further, and the force of the impact was strong enough to get him flying across the guild hall.

'...I should've just left the power somewhere around 20%. Then at least, I wouldn't be so weak against her,' Ichigo thought with a groan as he slowly and comically slid off the wall and fell on the cobble floor. The reason he further sealed his power was kind of obvious; he was extremely strong. Having anything above 50% of his normal power makes all kinds of disasters, like how he can't hold a glass cup without breaking it, steal mugs bending into his hand, people screaming with a handshake, and so on. The only one able to withstand his moderate strength before he sealed it -which was then 70% sealed- was Acnowlogia. But even she had a hard time. So he had further sealed it.

To 90% sealed. When he did so, he found out that he was just as strong as Erza, albeit tad bit weaker.

Just a tad bit. Almost imperceptible.

"What now?" he asked as he got himself turned around.

"What were you doing?" she asked him.

"...Meditating." The closer interpretation, however, was that he was talking _with_ himself. Specifically, Zangetsu.

"And why exactly would you do that?" she asked.

"Because I can..."

She raised an eyebrow. At this state, she was much stronger than he was, but she knew better than to challenge him just because he was weaker than her there.

"Are we going to stay here forever?"

Ichigo blinked as he sat up on the floor. They had been here for quite a number of days, with him stuck in the library, learning everything about this world, and she disgusted as hell despite the fact that she did enjoy the conversation with Makarov, another exception from her hate of "pitiful race of humans." One particular reason was because he was one of the Ten Wizard Saints, and a very powerful one of them.

"Well, I've read at least half of the library-" Before he could finish however, Acnowlogia jumped towards him and gave him a drill kick in his face. The impact sent Ichigo banging against the wall with a broken nose.

"HALF OF THE LIBRARY?" Acnowlogia shouted with a fury that matched Erza's wrath when her strawberry cake was hit aside. "And why in the world would you need to read them all?" The members of Fairy Tail watched as Acnowlogia stomped her wrath away on Ichigo chest while the poor man laid on the ground, spewing blood.

'That's harsh...' Was the general thought of the onlookers.

Perhaps after twenty or so stomps, she stopped, leaving behind a messy bloody gore of something that used to be human... but not human anymore. Truth be told, it looked more like something that only meat butchers would recognize. While Ichigo laid there on the ground comically, Acnowlogia stormed out of the guild.

"Why does she hate us so much?" one of the members asked to no one in particular, but definitely offended by her actions.

"She's not really social, you see," Ichigo said as he got up, wiping his blood mouth and chest. "And she hates people in general."

"Then how is she staying with you?" Makarov asked Ichigo from the counter, right next to Mirajane. "Why did she have so much fun with me?"

"Because we're strong, jii-san. She hates the weak," he replied as he got up. "But I guess, half of the library was a bit too much."

"You've only been here for a week..." Gray said.

"I know."

"And you read half of the library."

"Yeah."

"... How?"

* * *

Acnowlogia waited for Ichigo to find her on the outskirts of the town. Here, there were a lot of things she did enjoy.

Sweet, soft grass.

Friendly insects.

The sun.

The very warmth of nature, all about her.

But the human city...

It was cold.

Hard.

And stunk of humans in general.

They really needed to take care of their hygiene...

"Yo, Acnow-ny!" Ichigo called, correcting himself on the way, as he got to where Acnowlogia was with her scale-like shoe off. She was standing in the middle of a clearing where the grass had abundantly grown. The average height of these grass was just above the ankle, and their green leaves soothed anyone who came to them. It soothed her as well... "Oi, I'm calling!"

She whirled around with a forced smile that was very apparent. "Yes?"

Ichigo reeled. "You feeling alright?"

She dropped the smile and grabbed his collar. "Let's get out of here."

"Woah, woah, woah. We at least have to say good-bye," he retorted as he grabbed her wrist and gently unfolded her fist, releasing his collar in the process. "That's manner."

She t'ched, but didn't outright object.

"Besides, we're going to need some things if we are going to travel."

She shook her finger. "I'm a dragon."

"Yes, but that doesn't mean you can go wherever you want with just that one piece of yours," Ichigo replied tastily. "Besides, whether your a dragon or not, in your human form, you will stink," he replied.

She blushed red. "I do not stink!"

He raised an eyebrow. "Uh huh."

"I don't!"

* * *

AoL

* * *

"... Another one," a man with a black mask over his face hissed as he walked on a crutch.

"What is that?" Siegrand, one of the Ten Wizards Saints and the false front of Jellal Fernand, asked as he watched one of his closest adviser.

"Nothing, sir. I have just felt a change in the stream of destiny... but nothing that would affect you and your plan," he said as he limped over to the window of Siegrand's office. "However, he is very powerful..."

"How powerful?" Ultear asked.

"..." the man looked at Siegrand. The pair of white pupil on black iris behind the skull-like mask peered into Siegrand's eyes. Then it disappeared as the man lowered his head, and the hood on top of his head covered the eye slits. "Stronger than Zeref... Zeref is nothing but a child to this man, but for some reason, this man is keeping himself weak on purpose. But he is a man that was never intended for this world," the man continued. "And because of him, many things will change."

"Will it affect my plan?" Siegrand asked from his seat, left of the man and right of Ultear.

The man chuckled. "Interfere? Perhaps. But change, no... It will end as it always will. And I shall stand by you when it comes to an end. To support you. The real you, of course..."

Siegrand smiled. "Good... And as always, I appreciate your support."

"And you are most welcome," the man said as he turned away from the window, casting a very long shade in the room as the sun hovered just over the horizon, reddening it with a blood-like hue.

* * *

AoL

* * *

Ichigo sneezed.

"... Is someone talking about me?" Ichigo muttered as he sniffed once and then twice.

"What?" Acnowlogia asked as she picked out a black dress. Despite being black, it wasn't as gloomily as one might think, which was what Ichigo was thinking.

"Nothing. I just had a bad thought," he replied. "Are you done yet, though?"

She glared at him. "When a lady comes to shopping-"

"You aren't exactly a lady..." he replied, to which he received a very powerful jab to his side. He doubled over and fell on the floor of the shop. "...W-Why -?"

"You deserved it."

"Ichigo-san!"

Ichigo turned around just as Mira came up to him. She was wearing her usual red dress with her front hair tied up. However, he noticed that she had dragged a bag into the shop. One that was big enough to fit her in there.

'If you slice her up and shove her in there, that is,' his hollow, who had been silent until now, chuckled inside his mind.

The sudden emergence of his hollow had shocked Ichigo. He tripped while standing and landed face flat on the wooden floor. Unfortunately, he landed nose first, and with a nice snap and a crack, it broke. Both Mirajane and Acnowlogia winced when the snap resonated to them.

"You okay?" Acnowlogia asked, feigning disinterest by only looking at him from the corner of her eyes.

Mirajane had already released her grip on the bag and covered her mouth. "Are you okay, Ichigo-san?" she asked, seriously concerned.

He waved them off with his trembling left even as a blood pool formed with his head in the center.

"No, you're not," Acnowlogia added as she hooked the dress she was looking at on the rack and knelt down just as Mira did the same. They both reached out to him and picked him up. Once they did, they apologized the shopkeeper for the mess he left behind and left towards the guild. "But really, who trips while standing?" Acnowlogia asked Mira, who giggled. "This guy seriously needs to get himself together..."

As they dragged him into and on an empty table, Mira would ask about Ichigo a lot to Acnowlogia, who already guessed after the fourth question that this silver haired girl was interested in Ichigo. But after that question, she shrugged her off by saying that even she didn't know much about him, other than the fact that he was insanely strong and has to constantly keep his power level in check via conscious or sealing if he didn't want to harm anyone. That got Mira a bit confused. She asked how one's raw power within can hurt someone outside without casting magic. Acnowlogia said she didn't know, but told her that it did happen, and if even one of the seals on Ichigo's chest was unlocked, they would both be suffocating.

Mira took her words seriously.

"We're home!"

"You're back, Natsu-!"

SLAM!

That was Natsu's foot slamming into the bucktooth man's face.

"The info you gave me on Salamander was fake!" Natsu roared as several table got thrown off.

"Oi, Natsu's back? We're settle the score from last time!" Gray said, sudenly popping out of nowhere without a shirt or pants. Only his boxers.

And the fight ensued once more... Leaving the newcomer Lucy gapping.

"W-What is this?"

Giant master didn't help the image of the guild.

The giant master became tiny and jumped up to the second floor's railing, only to hit the railing. He trembled as he got himself up above on the said wooden railing.

"Listen up!"

Everyone turned to him.

"Look at this pile of documents that the Council sent me!"

Suddenly, everyone felt a shiver run up their spine, except Lucy. 'The Council... It's the organization that manages the guilds.'

"First.

"Gray."

"Ha?"

"Good job on sweeping out the smuggling organization. But you walked around naked in town afterwards and RAN AWAY after stealing underweat that was being dried."

"But ... wouldn't it be worse if I were naked?" Gray asked silently.

"Then don't be naked in the first place," Elfman replied equally silently.

Master Makarov sighed. "Elfman! You had a mission to escort a VIP, but assaulted him during the mission!"

"He said 'men are all about education' so..." he grumbled a bit.

"Cana! Charging the Council with your tab..."

"Shit, they found out."

"I heard that."

"..."

"Loki. Stop flirting with the council members' daughters!"

"..."

Then with a heavy sigh and a shoulder slump, Makarov turned to Natsu.

"... You just got us four million jewels worth of property damage compensation."

Lucy jerked up a bit. 'So Natsu is the one that's making all the cover line...' she thought.

"Arzach, Levi, Kulov, Reedus, Warren, Visca, etc..."

There was silence.

"Guys. The council members are angry at me all the time...

"But... Forget about the Council Members."

"EH?"

Makarov burnt the documents and hurled it at Natsu, who took it gladly like a dog.

"If we keep worrying about the watchful eyes of the higher-ups, your magic won't improve. Do not fear the fools of the council. Do what you think is right! That's the way of Fairy Tail!"

There were soon cheers, grins, and laughters.

And Ichigo heard all of this from his place on the table, still pretending to be knocked out.

'This ... is a very nice guild.'

* * *

AoL

* * *

"Then why are we out on the road?" Acnowlogia asked the next morning.

"Hmm?" Ichigo turned to Acnowlogia, who was now wearing a more suitable set of clothes for travelling. Though tight and dark, her pair of pants and her cotton shirt were better than her one piece.

"Why are we traveling on the road again if you think that guild is good," she repeated.

"Oh... Because I still need to learn," Ichigo said.

"Huh?" Acnowlogia said. "But you've read that entire library! There's no way you don't know anything-!"

He shook his head. "A man may learn through the book, but there are things that he could only learn by experience," Ichigo said, looking drastically older than he should be while saying it.

'Mature, not old,' she told herself. '...Just how perfect of a guy is he-! Oh...' She flushed.

"What is it?" he asked her.

"N-Nothing!"

"Nothing? But you look red. Like all flustered up and such," he said as he stopped and placed a hand over her forehead.

The pink cheeks turned red now, and her entire face became a huge tomato.

"IDIOT!"

POW.

After that, they didn't talk anymore. Ichigo, confused. Acnowlogia, embarrassed.

Then they stopped. Acnowlogia bumped into him. "Hey, why did you stop suddenly?" she complained as she rounded around him while keeping her eyes on his head. When he didn't respond even when she was right in front of him, she turned around to see exactly what he was looking at.

It was an abandoned town.

She whirled back to him.

"...Exactly what is wrong with this that made you stop?" she asked him.

"... This town's name is Vakarose. Apparently, it was abandoned a hundred years ago after a riot took place here. Investigation was made, but they found a barrier surrounding the town. No one has entered or left the town since," he said.

She looked at him with an arched eyebrow. "That's it?"

"Yeah. It was interesting-."

"You came here on purpose," she deduced with a grin.

He shrugged. "Give or take. It was the closest place to Magnolia," he said as he approached the town's seemingly harmless entrance. But halfway there, he was zapped like a fly in the electric fence.

She winced.

He calmly stepped away from the town. His face was burnt as well as his clothes. "...I didn't expect it to be so .."

"Violent?"

"Yeah..." Ichigo replied after a while, a bit dazed by the shock of being electrocuted. He shook his head violently in an attempt to snap out of it. "You wanna try?"

"No thanks. I'm not an idiot."

He glared at her. "Be that way," he said playfully. He then thought about how to shatter the barrier. 'There must be some way to shatter it...' he thought as he knelt down and picked up a small pebble. He stood up and threw it at the barrier...

And the pebble came flying at him like a bullet. He side-stepped, and the pebble flew on. And then with a large creak, something fell. Ichigo and Acnowlogia looked behind, and twitched when they saw the fallen tree, the pebble at the heart of the gruesome murder.

"...You killed a defenseless tree..."

"Oi, it was the barrier!" he objected. "Che.." he spat before he drew Zangetsu from his back. The giant clever made a half circle slice over him and came in front. "Getsuga..."

'Oh...' Acnowlogia thought. 'I'm finally going to see something new.'

"...Tensho!"

He roared as he slung Zangetsu.

A bright blue light, or rather a shockwave, roared forth like a thunder and struck, a lightning on the ground travelling horizontally rather than vertically, the barrier.

The barrier shattered like a thousand piece of Senbonzakura Kageyoshi, and Acnowlogia awed the destructive beauty, power, and the precision in which he performed it.

"You really are something," she said as she held her hand up as one of the shattered barrier pieces floated down like a feather. It landed on her hand, and gave her a small zap. "Ow!"

"...It looks like the barrier wasn't magic," Ichigo said as he grabbed a very big chunk of it. But the color was wrong. When the barrier had been actively fighting against him, it gave off a bluish purple hue. But now that it was broken, it gave off a light blue hue. It was also considerably weaker. "This is a defensive installation," he added.

"A what?" she asked as she rubbed her twitching hand.

"A defensive installation. Like a barrack, only with millions and millions of tiny thorns on its surface. Only, the thorn was replaced by bolts and the occupants -instead of soldiers- are..." Ichigo broke off as he pointed at the seam that he had sliced open in the barrier. "Regular civilians." As if on cue, people began to trickle out of the crack, but all of them stood still after taking a good look at Ichigo.

"D-Did you do this?" an elder man asked. Ichigo nodded as he lowered Zangetsu. "Are you here to rescue us?"

That caught both of the travelers off-guard.

"Rescue?" Acnowlogia asked. "What do you mean rescue?"

"W-We've been stuck there for a decade! Whenver someone tried to leave, the barrier who zap them, roast them to death, actually. And then they would be gone. But we didn't need to eat, drink, or anything! It was quite an experience, actually, but horrible at the same time."

'Didn't Ichigo say that this town has been like this for a century?' Acnowlogia thought. "Hasn't this town been-?" She spoke her thoughts aloud, but before she could finish, Ichigo waved her off.

"How long has it been, exactly?" Ichigo asked them.

"Why, a decade-!"

"Since you've died," he replied to them.

"W-What do you mean-?"

"This barrier," Ichigo said as he held up the piece of barrier that was reacting violently with his hand. "Was made with Holy Magic."

Acnowlogia felt her eyes widen. That's why it reacted to her. Human holy magics, not Earth magics, reacted aggressively towards other races that they considered dangerous. These races included zombies, demons, skeletons, and ... dragons. She turned to Ichigo, wondering what he was to have the barrier react so ... violently.

The elder smiled nervously.

"W-What are -"

"I could tell by the stench of blood and decaying bodies," Ichigo said.

The elder looked through the seam, finding nothing. "What are playing at?" he growled at Ichigo. "I see -!"

"Nothing? Yeah, that's what I thought too when I saw you people coming out," he replied. "But did you see the ground right around the barrier?"

The elder looked down and gasped.

Acnowlogia didn't see why the elder should have gasped. She saw nothing there. So she walked closer-

Suddenly, the people from within the barrier turned on her and began to attack her. She jumped back in shock, and did so just in time to avoid a very corroded hand.

Rotten hand.

"W-What is this?" she shrieked as Ichigo came between her and the now-ravaging zombie horde.

"Some sort of zombifying dark magic. The barrier was keeping them inside," Ichigo said as he sliced four zombies across the torso. They fell and dissipated into dust. "And it looks like their body couldn't take much time anymore."

She was horrified. This is what humans did. It was dark magic. Humans turned each other into monsters...

Rage that had been bottled up by her travel with Ichigo burst forth. "Black Dragon's Roar!"

Ichigo jumped out of the way just as a very black burst of magic shot out of Acnowlogia. "That's an overkill!" he protested as the roar overwhelmed all of the zombies, the seam, and the barrier. When he came back down, Acnowlogia was gasping for breath; her power still had not returned. Just using the dragon's roar had costed her time to restore herself.

"Let's get rid of this town, Ichigo," she said as she got ready to perform another dragon's roar. She watched the barrier fall apart, like snowflakes, as the zombies began to run towards her. "Black-!"

Ichigo placed a hand over her lips. She stopped her magic midway and turned on him just as he slew another zombie.

"You're weak right now," he said as another zombie fell to his blade. "Leave this to me."

She growled angrily.

He was a human.

He was a human.

He was a human.

He was a human!

A human!

A hu-!

"Let me take some of that anger from you..."

Her anger suddenly quelled in her heart, replaced by a heartbeat skip.

Ichigo pulled her towards him and struck out against the zombie that had tried to attack her from behind while she was distracted. She bumped into his chest and soon felt the anger that was shivering on the surface of his skin.

"Let's remember Fairy Tail," he said. "Let's remember the people we cherish."

She trembled.

"Let us not let our wrath consume us."

* * *

AoL

* * *

Jellal and the rest of the Council members sat around their meeting table.

"...A man destroyed Vakarose," the messenger standing by the door said. "The barrier was broken, and all of the zombies were turned into dust."

Jellal -at his place looking at the Council through his other self- wondered who this man might be. Was it the man the Prophet was talking about or was it someone else?

"What happened to the barrier?"

"It had been shattered open," the messenger replied, reading from the report of the scientific department.

"How strong?" Ultear asked.

"According to the R&D department's conclusion, in a scale of 100, 100 being the most powerful attack one of the Ten Wizard Saints could produce and 1 being a simple drawing magic, the attack was around 57. It was easily stronger than some of the more powerful magics."

"Oi... Another troublemaker..." someone groaned.

"A troublemaker if left without a leash," Siegrand added.

"What are you suggesting, Siegrand?" one of the Council member asked at Jellal's illusion.

"What if we could recruit him?" Siegrand asked. "Shouldn't that make him an enforcer for our cause of monitoring the guilds?"

The Council seemed to agree.

"But we don't know anything about this man. Not even his face!"

"We could always get to know him..." Ultear added.

"...Point taken."

* * *

AoL

* * *

"Why do you say things like that?" Acnowlogia asked Ichigo.

It had been four days since then, but her mind was still boggling over few words he said to calm her down. They were now continuing to travel on the road that had taken them from Magnolia to Vakarose and then to seemingly nowhere except the lush green forests and the mountains. It was calm, unlike her heart and mind.

"Like what?" Ichigo asked, completely oblivious of her thoughts, as he walked with a slouched back. It wasn't a good image of him, but she knew better of him, and he was only slouching his back because he woke up so early to start travelling; he was still sleepy.

"L-Like..." she wanted to get the words out, but couldn't manage to do it. "...Never mind."

"No, tell me," he said, wanting to know.

"I said it's nothing!"

POW!

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?"

POW!

* * *

_Dear Readers,_

_Hello, this is AoL (funny how that came to be from my pen name, eh?). I'd like to thank you readers, and especially you reviewers, for taking your time to read my miserable story that still needs a lot of improvement. I would also like to thank you for giving me your support. I haven't seen a single flame so far (not that I ever got one from this friendly community in ). _

_Just brief words to thank you._

_From,_

_AoL_

_P.S. I'm thinking about changing my penname._


	5. Chapter 5

**Alright first thing first.**

**I did take some time to write this chapter. Thanks for waiting patiently :3**

**I'd like to thank all of you supporters, readers, and reviewers as well as constructive criticizers.**

**And now the story resumes...**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

Ichigo counted how many days since he left Magnolia.

"1, 2, 3.. 4, 5, 6,..."

"What are you doing?" Acnowlogia asked him as she ripped a limb from the roasted boar over the cooking fire. She then unceremoniously bit into it and ripped a chunk of the flesh.

"Counting how many days it has been since we left Magnolia," he replied to her as he pulled off another limb. Instead of biting into it, he merely played with it. "It's kind of hot, isn't it?" he asked her.

She shook her head. "I'm a dragon. This much heat is nothing," she said proudly.

He shrugged and pulled off a strip of meat. He bit it and left it hanging on the edge of his lips.

"Are you asking me to steal that?" she asked him who gave her a grin.

"Try it."

She lunged out with her hand, but he reeled a bit and she missed it by an inch. She reached further, and he reeled further. "Damn you!" she growled as she left her piece of meat alone and went after his. He saw her going after it and took joy in pulling it away from her just before she reached it. He held it high above him and chuckled.

"You're so slow, Ah-chan!" he teased her and she went red.

"Don't call me that! It sounds disgusting!" she objected to her new nickname as she jumped up to grab it... Only to miss it when Ichigo dropped it behind him and caught it with his other hand just before it landed on the dirt ground behind him. "Ah ah ah," he said, shaking his left index finger at her. "You just threw away yours. I ain't giving you mine."

She turned back, and there it was. What was once a delicious meat was now soiled on the ground.

"..." She turned back to him. "Like I give a damn!" she shouted.

Watching the two act playfully to one another was none other than Zangetsu.

'You've become loose, Ichigo,' Zangetsu thought to himself as he saw them through his physical manifestion, the zanpakuto. Technically, he didn't have his physical body out with him standing in front of Ichigo like he had during the bankai training. He was merely watching the two have fun through the zanpakuto. And it was obvious that if he came out, he would not be welcomed.

* * *

"...Can that really be him?" the Rune Knight scout #1 asked #2.

#2, a heavily bearded and mustached man who used to be a mountain hunter, shook his head. "No. One of them has to be a very strong fighter, magician or not. You can tell by their subtle actions."

#1 looked at #2 as if he was crazy, or blind. "What are you talking about?"

#2 pointed at the man. "See him? He's very far away from his sword. It means that he's prepared to fight if anything jumps out at them. And that lady? Her muscle never flexes, yet with one strike she took down that boar," he said.

#1 sweatdropped. They had been sent by the Magic Council to find the one resposible for the neutralization of Vakarose. Though not knowing where to start aside from the fact that -by the time they got to Vakarose- the targets were already well on the move. Fortunately, #2's magic, Trace Tracking, allowed them to quickly catch up to the two.

But oh the horror.

Wherever they went to follow the two, there was always trouble. Once, they ran into a remnant of a dark guild army that the two defeated, and managed to escape only because #1 had some Teleport lacrima. Without them, they would have been roasted alive by the frustrated dark guild members.

"Yeah..."

The hunting of their target had also been a very ... chilling experience. While the taller one, whom the lady called Ichigo, just constantly used ridiculosly fast movement -movement too fast for the eyes to follow- to keep the boar in an invisible cage, the lady, whom Ichigo called Ah-chan and never the full name, went into the cage Ichigo created, and with a single strike to its neck, killed the boar. The scouts felt goosebumps rise on their skin when they saw that occur from a distance.

And they were still observing the two from a distance.

"...Yeah," #2 muttered before he turned back to the two. "But I highly doubt that Ah-chan is that lady's name. Is she some sort of a mage that has a high bounty on her or something?" he speculated but his speculation didn't lead him anywhere. "Perhaps she's a very famous person who decided to-"

"You read too much novels," #1 growled quietly.

Despite being quite the mountain man, #2 had a taste for novels of all genre except romance; he was already married and had four children, and he didn't get why romance novels were so widely read; they exaggerated life romances too much.

"Hey, at least I get promotion because I do things people who don't read and write can't do," #2 replied.

"Big deal. Where I come from, everyone reads and writes."

"Well-" #2 froze. He and #1 turned around and saw Ichigo with his sword slung over his shoulder.

"So, how long have you been following me?"

* * *

"When did you notice them?" Acnowlogia asked.

"From the beginning actually," Ichigo replied. "But not really sure exactly how long. I know I got the skint of them near the start of their spying, but I wasn't sure how long that had been."

"I wonder..." she thought outloud. She turned to the two, who were tied up, beaten up (by Acnowlogia), and forced to kneel.

"So," she began and the two tensed up. "How long?"

"W-Well... Four days after you blew up Vakarose..." #1 replied.

"Ah, that zombie-infested town?" Ichigo spat.

"Y-Yes."

"Why were you?" Acnowlogia asked.

"... I refuse to talk about our goal," #2 replied.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Okay then. I'll just start," he said as he set Zangetsu by the tree. The two Rune Knights tensed up. Was he going to torture them into getting the information out-?

Ichigo crouched in front of the bound Knights and placed his finger on top of #1's forehead.

Nothing happened for a moment, and the Knights wondered what Ichigo was doing. Just as #2 was about to ask what was going on, #1 fell over, unconscious. "What are you doing to him?" #2 growled angrily.

"Nothing physically harmful. I'm just letting my ... myself do some nasty business with his mind," Ichigo said.

The truth was, he was letting Shirosaki do the honor of ... persuading the man to give up the information.

* * *

In #1's inner world...

#1 whirled around as he swept his eyes across the village. It was a fully intact village, but no one was here and it was creeping him out. 'Where am I?' he thought calmly. The sky was a shade of light blue and white. Unfortunately, it had multitudes of large clouds that blocked out the sun, casting a gloomy atmosphere over the village and its surroundings. 'Wasn't I just at the forest with them? With Henry?'

"Yo~..."

#1 whirled around, but there as nothing in vicinity.

"Over here..."

He whirled in the opposite direction, and again, found nothing.

"Ya stupid?"

"Who are you?" #1 asked. His legs were trembling already and he was sweating. God this was some nightmare that was about to begin.

"Me? Just a hollow."

"H-Hollow? What's that?"

"Me."

Just then, #1 felt a presence behind him and whirled around to punch.

He never got to.

Just as he saw a black sclera with a golden iris, he was sent flying up into the sky by a very powerful kick that had hit his jaw. He flew up, gapping at the pain and the power that he experienced, and felt down.

Shiro planted a drop kick just as #1 came down at about his head, and sent him crashing down unto the ground.

* * *

When he opened his eyes again, #1 was on the ground, bleeding profusely.

"Now we can start," the monster that beat the crap out of him chuckled with its echoy voice as it approached #1 from his blind side. It grabbed him by the back and lifted him up. "Who sent you?"

* * *

Ichigo, who was viewing what Shiro was doing by his other's eyes, flinched when he saw how quickly and mercilessly Shrio took out #1. "That's gotta hurt," he muttered quietly.

"What's gotta hurt?" Acnowlogia asked. "Are't you just probing his mind?"

Ichigo wanted to explain in detail what exactly made him feel sorry for the man whose mind he was invading, but found that he couldn't without telling her everything. Or at least half of his story.

"...I'll tell you later," he said, vaguely aware of the eyes Henry was giving him.

"Release my comrade!" Henry demanded as #1 began to compulse. "Stop it!"

"If he tells me waht I want, I'll stop," Ichigo replied. 'Hopefully.'

'I ain't gonna kill him, King. Don't worry,' Shiro replied as he threw a punch at #1's face, snapping the jaw and the nose. Ichigo flinched again.

'Can't you be more ... gentle with him?'

'I ain't gonna. This guy's pissing me off.'

"But your friend refuses to speak," he added. "Of course, I'll stop if you tell me."

"The Council!"

Ichigo forced Shiro to stop. "Who?"

"The Magic Council of Fiore!"

Ichigo let go of #1 and stood up. "Thank you. Now, if you don't mind, go to sleep."

Henry didn't understand what Ichigo meant by 'go to sleep.' But just after Ichigo had spoken those words, a very heavy pressure snapped on top of him and he blacked out.

Ichigo sighed as he watched Henry fall backward and hit the ground behind him.

"What's the Council, Mr. Library?" Acnowlogia asked him.

"They're the ... old men and women who regulate the magic guilds," he replied as he untied both Henry and #1. "Most of them are one of the Ten Wizards Saints, which puts them on par with you."

Acnowlogia frowned. She still hated being compared to humans, though when he did it, she was less picky about it. But to say that there were ten humans who were rival in strength with her? That was over the line.

"Well, fuck them!" Acnowlogia growled. She didn't hit Ichigo despite the fact that with more than three-quarter of his power sealed away, she was stronger than him. She didn't feel like hitting him; she felt like hitting these two in front of her. However, Ichigo would disapprove of her actions, so she didn't. Not yet anyways. "...What do we do now? I mean, we know that this Council is after us -or will be after us because you refused to kill those two. Are we going to just ignore them or go right up to their face and kick their ass?"

Ichigo contemplated the idea of squashing the Magic Council like a bug so that they won't follow him anymore. It sounded vaguely like the idea he had to crush Soul Society's cruel laws -which, in the end, he had. Would he be facing anyone like Byakuya, someone as strong as him who could stand up to keep the old order, or was he the strongest in this world, as Natsu and Gray and put it?

Perhaps he should go back to Fairy Tail to ask their opinion about this.

Then again, he thought as he stopped the train of thoughts number 1 to start number 2. They might not welcome me once they find out that the Council is after me.

Then again, scratch that. Makarov was certainly ... enthusiastic about ignoring the council...

"What are you thinking so deeply about?" Acnowlogia asked as he began to walk again. She followed after him.

"I'm going back to Fairy Tail," he said.

She stopped.

He stopped only a few steps in front of her. "What?" he asked her.

"...Why are you going back to that guild?" she asked him.

"To get some advice."

"Oh, okay."

With that, he turned around again and she followed him.

She let out a sigh of relief. She thought he was going back to those humans -most of whom were weak as a roach and whose lives were persistent like a roach- to ... join them or something. If that had been the case, then she would not be able to stay with him, no matter how much she wanted to next to him. Her hate for humans would eventually erupt and ... she would start killing.

And he would stop her.

Kill her even if she can't gain control of herself.

That last thought was a wrench thrown into her thought gears.

'Would ... he kill me if I attack humans?' she thought. 'I-I know he isn't a human, but still... he seems to just love them...' She sighed quietly. Why did he, a being of near god's power, love the humans so much? Why couldn't he be closer to those with power? Like her? She wanted to ask him, but she didn't want to tell him that she wanted to know something about him. It would only give him an excuse to tease her, right in the face! No, she was not going to have that on her hands. She was going to find out about this man, even if it meant that she would be spending quite a bit of her time with him. Of course, she didn't mind spending time with him... As long as he was far away from any weak humans.

Then there was a jolt in her. 'The hell was that?' she screamed mentally. She was still not used to being in a human body, and as such, any kind of experience was quite new. But this experience, she soon noticed as her train of thought slowed down. Wasn't a human body's experience.

It was her body telling her that she was good to go in her dragon body.

Oh joy!

Ichigo turned around. "You okay?" he asked her.

"N-No! Everything is perfectly fine!" she replied. "Just not happy with you -"

"No. You don't look alright," he said as he over her shoulder.

"Eh?" she said as turned around-.

Black Wings.

Black wings like her dragon body's.

"Oh crud."

* * *

Acnowlogia was now really, really sensitive. Not only had her magic powers was in a state of haywire, she didn't know the cause of it.

"This is ridiculous!" she shouted in the sky as a measure to keep her sanity.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow.

Just after her body had ... sprouted the pair of wings, Acnowlogia has been becoming quite violent. At first, she was just biting her fingernail, but now, she was shouting and destroying everything that was deemed weak. Including trees, rocks, and unfortunate animals of all kind. She sat down now, clearly exhausted after using an invisible dragon's roar -one made purely out of sonicboom- into the sky with her shout. She turned to him and growled.

"What are you looking at?" she growled.

He raised an eyebrow. Was she picking a fight with him?

"Oi, don't get angry at me just because you can't control your own magic," he retorted.

A vein popped up on her temple. "Shut up!" she hissed at him, but accidentally unleashed a massive burst of magic... That clawed out a good forty meters around her ... and hit Ichigo as well.

Her heart jerked. she immediately ran towards him, only to find him unharmed and a streak of untouched land behind him.

Ichigo only raised an eyebrow. "You do that, and then come to me worried?"

She hit him. This time with her fist. "GAH! Why did I even care in the first place?"

Ichigo groaned. He still had majority of his powers sealed and the punch Acnowlogia threw around did give him a good dent in the forehead. But he didn't complain. She was just like how he was with the broad spectrum of his powers, from Fullbringer to hollow power. Especially hollow power. He had learned to wait, and wait he did for her to gain control of herself. 'But I wonder why she can't control her powers right now. She used to be able to, didn't she? Even when she was maimed heavily and bleeding profusely, not to mention half-unconscious.'

"How long do dragons usually live?" he asked her.

She turned to him, a bit confused by the question to be angrier than she was at the moment. "More than five hundred years, why?"

"When do they reach adulthood?"

"Ummm... Around 200."

"Ah. So you're a teenager!"

She blushed. "I'm still older than you!"

"Ha! So it's your hormones-!"

POW.

* * *

"Okay, let's go to that guild!" Acnowlogia said a good hour after landing the resounding punch on Ichigo's face. His face was still red and he was tearing up a bit from the pain (the punch rocked through hierro and reiatsu shield that he managed to put up with whatever amount of power he had).

"...Now you're happy after eating the entire boar..."

"Of course! We dragons do not get hormone issues. After all, we age very slowly compared to you humans."

Ichigo sighed. It hadn't been a hormone issue; it had been a hunger issue.

She had lost control of herself because her stomach was empty.

Really... That was hilarious. Perhaps he should make fun of her later with it.

"Are you coming or not?" Acnowlogia asked as she walked ahead of him. He pulled himself out of his thoughts like a fisherman pulls out a fish from the ocean, and quickly strode over to her side.

* * *

"This ... is ridiculous," Belno of the Magic Council muttered under his breath as he tossed the packet of paper to the next council member who caught it with telekinesis magic.

"Seeing as how they didn't kill our men, though, suggests that they do not mean harm if we don't mean harm," Yajima Shitou, the 6th seat of the Magic Council, said to the rest of the council.

"Or they did it because they didn't want to draw attention to themselves. No dark guild wants that, and you know it, Shitou."

The said man looked at the 2nd seat, Org.

"What are you suggesting then? A pair of mages who are very much aware of the existence of Vakarose broke into it and cleansed it? Cleansed it against the 'secret' pact of the dark guilds to not do it?" the short man asked in reply.

Org stroked his beard. "You do have a point..."

'Whoever he is,' Ultear thought as she read the report, the part where the scouts reported having their mind invaded. 'This man is truly dangerous.'

And that was something the entire council agreed upon.

Controlling someone by means of magic was very common -and forbidden- practice. However, invading into someone's mind and torturing someone within it? It was unheard of.

"...There was one man who was able to do that, though," Siegrand pointed out quietly and the entire council felt jolts through their spine.

"But it can't be him. He's dead," Org hissed.

"Not if they revived him... And he decided to travel on his own," he replied.

Shitou raised an eyebrow. "Are you suggesting that Zeref is alive? And he's going about doing good?"

Siegrand smirked mentally but kept a grim face. No, that was not Zeref. Zeref was still dead, and roaming within his mind. "Perhaps... But I doubt it."

The baffled council sat quietly, unsure of how to solve the issue.

If this man was ever a issue. After all, he was doing too much good from the perspective of the council to be a issue.

Perhaps a recruitment issue...? Org thought to himself. "Maybe he is against the dark guilds themselves," Org thought outloud. "Or he's just a very powerful mage that happened to be ... unlucky to get our attention."

Half the council scoffed at the word 'unlucky.' Indeed, no mage or magic guild wanted to catch the ever-gazing eyes of the Magic Council who sought to regulate them with iron fist, if necessary. There was one dark guild not too long ago that did catch the council's eyes. It did not end well for them.

"Never the less, one of us should go and talk with him. With guards of course," Siegrand suggested.

"Agreed. I suggest one of you youngsters," Shitou said.

Ultear raised an eyebrow. "One of us?" she asked.

"Yes. Unlike most of us here, you two are fit and still strong, though you lack in the experience department..." he added.

Ultear scoffed and Siegrand smirked.

"I'll go," Siegrand said. "It won't take me long with my long distance teleport magic," he added.

"Is it decided then?" Ultear asked the rest of the council, who shrugged. "Alright. Go ahead, Siegrand-sama."

And watching all this happen from the corner of the room was Sigerand's special guest: the man with a white skeletal mask.

"Siegrand-sama. It will be unwise of you to journey out," he said, and the entire council turned to him.

"What are you talking about? He's one of the Ten Wizards Saints-" Org pointed out, only to stop himself when the masked man raised his hand for attention.

"I'm sorry, but any and all members of Ten Wizards Saints ... are weak to me," he said and more than five of the Council members shot up.

"How dare you-!"

The man raised his hand to the mask and it slowly dissipated.

At the same rate as a heavy pressure began to settled in the council chamber.

The council members, save Siegrand and Ultear fell to the floor.

"W-What-?"

"Like I said, you are weak if you can't stand this..." he said to them as he remade the mask on his face. "And that man ... is a monster compared to me." He then sighed. "You youngings -yes, including you, Org- need to learn even more about this world. Or rather, the worlds that this world is surrounded by ... and is now connected to."


	6. Chapter 6

**Acnowlogia.**

**Acnologia. **

**Ugh...**

**Anyway, thanks for correcting that. Seems like that's a huge mistake :P. **

**Now, the story continues on, but before I begin, I'd like to point out some stuff about Ichigo's personality.**

**Ichigo is a typical main character; he doesn't have much of a personality. Sure, he wants to protect people, beat up weirdos, and be a strong guy who is completely oblivious to girls fawning over him. Goes against all odds, and if he ever got beat up, he would get up again, and fight again. Not to mention that he's pretty quite.**

**All of which is the Ichigo I've been describing. Sure, he's all powerful and whatnot and he is a bit playful with Acnologia, which are the only OOCness. If you think I'm wrong about this, then please pm me, or review it. I look over all my reviews for feedbacks.**

**And once again, thank you all my readers and reviewers. You help and encourage me.**

**AoL signing out.**

* * *

**Chapter 6**

Siegrand, against the Masked Prophet's advice, went to meet Ichigo.

"...Hmm, he is supposed to be around here somewhere," Siegrand muttered as he looked about, trying to feel the flow of magic that all mages released unconsciously. It was ... hard. Right now, he was facing the forest, but behind him, there was a town by the name of Magnolia, where the Fairy Tail guild was. Not only that, the Phantom Lords were here with all their S-class mages. They were making so much mess in his head with their unconsciously leaking magic; they were making it harder for him to detect this Ichigo. 'But at the same time, it doesn't help that you haven't seen him before, never mind the "feel" of his magic,' he thought as he looked about.

* * *

Ichigo felt uncomfortable as he repelled the seeking "aura" that was sweeping over the forest from the town's direction with his own magic. The seeker was using almost a sonar like magic, and Ichigo who did learn some goodies from his high school science class, decided to "abosrob" the sonar by creating a cushion like invisible wall of "sand-like" substance. They weren't solid, so if Ichigo stepped out, he would immediately be detected.

"He ...seems evil," Acnologia muttered quietly, despite knowing that even if she shouted, the seeker would not hear her thanks to Ichigo's barrier.

"Evil is a matter of perspective," Ichigo replied.

"You're saying he's normal?"

Ichigo contemplated the "feel" of Siegrand's magic. It was mentally unstable, and almost wrecked. As if someone had messed with it so much. Yet there was a strong will behind it.

"No, just a retard..."

"Huh?"

"Never mind," he replied.

Acnologia peered at him. She has been keeping a close eye on him ever since she met and began to travel with him (anyone else aside from Ichigo who thought otherwise were stupids). When she first met him, he used very blunt attacks with repetitive techniques. Had she fought him a tad longer than she first had and had she stayed calm, she might have beaten him. It was that repetitive. Granted, he had speed, power, and intellect to work with but it was almost stupidly ... repetitive. But what was truly frightening about him was the fact that he has a uncomparable growth and adaption rate. At first, he was oblivious to his surroundings, the magic that filled this world. Now, he was expert at manipulating, refracting, reflecting, and neutralizing magic. Or just plain overpowering them when he sees hit. All within months of arriving here in this world.

And then it was then that Acnologia was once again reminded how short of a time she had spent with him... and how close she had become.

Of course, her intimacy was lost on him. He was that kind of guy; he was just oblivious to everything that was outside of his current interest.

Which was the seeker that was constantly searching for something.

Ichigo of the _old_ would have gone right up to him and would have started to ask questions. He was like a angry tiger, ready to pounce.

Ichigo of the _old_ would have swung his sword up against someone who reminded him too much of Aizen.

Ichigo of the _old_ was courageous.

Bold.

And gallant (which is a synonym for stupid).

Ichigo of the new was cunning. He was quite. He refrained from speaking out. He was like a corrupting seed that waited to give its target a deadly blow.

Ichigo of the new realized how much change he had gone through.

Ichigo of the new realized that he was different. It was a horrible thought, actually. He was different. He was not the man he thought he was.

Was it this world? Was it himself? Perhaps it is a combination of the two. But it was what it was.

He was no longer Kurosaki Ichigo from Karakura Town but a ...

And that realization let a small enough crack in his concentration to disrupt the flow of magic from him to the barrier he erected. It was actually almost a split second error, but Siegrand was not one of the Ten Wizards Saint for nothing.

It took less than five seconds for Siegrand to find, target, and teleport to them.

When they came, he stood right in front of them, and he marveled at the magic barrier which Ichigo had erected.

"This ... is impressive," he told them. "Who made it?" he said as he looked at them. "Is it you, blackie?"

Acnologia twitched at being called a blackie. This human dared to call her names? That pissed her off.

"Black Dragon's..." she hissed as she drew her right fist back.

Siegrand's eyes widened immediately. Black Dragon?

"Wrath!"

Though Siegrand hadn't seen a Dragon Slayer Magic personally, he was aware of the damage that they could do... and how they usually behaved. So just as Acnologia unleashed her magic, he dodged...

Down.

Acnologia punched towards him and sent a fury of corrupting darkness (imagine Barragan's Respira, except directed like a pillar). To her surprise, Siegrand was not there.

* * *

Jellal twitched when he felt the corrupting power of the Black Dragon Slayer's magic. It was really strong, not to mention that it completely obliterated his illusion, which had bee casted with a very high level magic. 'Which means that Black Dragon Slayer magic does not just affect the physical aspect of one, but also one's power?' It was actually scary. To know that there existed a power that decays other things in a blast that makes it look like the target had been blasted away by raw power like a dragon's breath.

Acnologia was no regular dragon, Jellal thought as his hands trembled in slight apprehension. 'It's a demon dragon...'

* * *

"Where the hell did that stinking fish-monkey bastard go?" Acnologia hissed as she jumped about the immediate vicinity.

Ichigo shrugged as he took down the barrier which he and Acnologia had been behind when she fired her Wrath. Fortunately, the barrier he set up, which he called Sonic Absorber, had consumed almost thirty percent of the original blast... And that had been enough to keep the power within the immediate area.

But looking at the devastation that the Black Dragon Slayer magic had on the environment was a harsh reminder of what Black Dragon Slayer Magic's element was: Decay. Black Dragon Acnologia was no powerhouse that used massive amount of power in her breath or wrath, merely quickened decay that has no bounds. Wrath, which was stronger than Breath, was twenty times faster in decay than Breath, while Breath was two hundred times stronger and faster than natural decay of the world. Only reason the textbooks about Acnologia described her power as black fire was because the decay made inorganic and organic materials to wither away after decaying into black materials... and those black materials fluttered as if they were on fire.

It was truly frightening power that Ichigo wanted to use only as a last resort before having to release any level of seal on himself.

"Acnologia, stop berserking every single time some human calls you something!" Ichigo protested.

She turned on him, but only made a scowl. "BEH!" she stuck her tongue out, and after a look of blank surprise, Ichigo chuckled.

"Come on, let's get going to Magnolia. They seem like they are in trouble."

* * *

AoL

* * *

Indeed, they were.

Only a few hours ago, one hour before Ichigo and Acnologia arrived in the nearby forest, Fiary Tail was alerted that Phantom Lords were coming towards them. How was still unanswered.

Just as Ichigo arrived, that how was answered.

With a portable castle-like headquarters that the Phantom Lords used.

Ichigo stared at the ugly castle and anime sweatdropped. "What the hell is that?" he muttered quietly while Acnologia laughed.

It was like a four legged cricket without a head. Giant cricket, might they add. But still a headless cricket.

"W-What the hell? Humans waste time making stupid stuff like t-that?" Acnologia ROFLed on the roof of a red-tiled house with Ichigo standing right next to her.

"Stop laughing, you're gonna hurt their feelings," Ichigo said sarcastically. She continued to laugh just until she felt a heavy concentration of magical power being fired out from the castle. She got up and looked over to the castle as Ichigo did, as a black orb formed from a stream of magic pouring out of the movable headquarter. Both she and Ichigo knew the destructive nature this unstable magic power was going to prove, and it was going to kill a lot of people. She didn't mind, but she knew that Ichigo did. So she called out to him in a retort like shout.

"Ichigo!" she shouted. "Do your job already!"

"I'm on it," Ichigo replied equally loudly just as Jupiter was ready to fire.

* * *

Erza who had pulled out her adamantine armor. She knew that this armor was the best defense against the magic cannon the Phantom Lords Guild was about to fire. She knew that it would also not be enough.

She stood in the middle of the fire line anyway and put her shield up.

"Danku."

Erza's eyes widened just slightly as a purplish grey transparent slab appeared in front of her. "What-?"

Then Ichigo appeared behind her.

"Danku won't be enough, so get ready for it!" he shouted.

Erza stared at him briefly. How did he manage to come to the town at just the right time? She snapped out of them and got her shield in front of her.

The Jupiter cannon came and hit.

* * *

Acnologia stood still on top of the roof where she and Ichigo had been just as Jupiter hit where Ichigo had run off to - to protect humans.

She cringed at the thought. She still didn't understand why the hell he wanted to protect them. They were weak. They died out fast. They reporduced fast. They were always destroying something.

Always condemning someone.

Always robbing someone.

Always fighting someone.

Always killing someone.

Always angry.

Always filthy.

Always sad.

They were sad creatures.

Yes, Ichigo told her of how he was once a human, but he wasn't human anymore. His strength and power... was beyond a god in this world. She would know. 'I met one,' she thought darkly.

* * *

Ichigo whistled as the armor she wore cracked and some of his clothes tattered after being hit by Jupiter. She stared at him in shock; he had shielded her half-way from her right to the middle of her chest with his own body. Yet not even his clothes were ripped.

Ichigo smiled at her. "Wait here," he said as he set the shocked Titania down and turned to the Phantom Lords.

* * *

"Sir! There is a newcomer!" one of the machine operators reported loudly.

Jose Porla, the guild master of Phantom Lord, walked up to the window. "Who is it?"

"I-It's the guy wanted by the Magic Council!" one of his men shouted as he brought up a wanted sheet up to his guild master.

The man took the sheet -snapped it away from the frightened young man's hand- and looked at it.

"Five hundred million jewels?"

Everyone in the command center stared at him.

He cracked a smile. "He must be strong," he muttered. Then he frowned. "And he's helping Fairy Tail..."

* * *

Ichigo cracked his neck before he undid his top carefully, revealing a intricate but almost invisible set of maze-like tattoo under the t-shirt and leather jacket he had worn.

Every girl around looked at him and blushed, despite the fact that there was a guild war going on. This included Acnologia who had just come to see if Ichigo was alright.

"Hey, don't just strip in front of the whole town!" Acnologia shouted at him.

Ichigo chuckled. "Sorry, but this is the only way I'll be able to use my magic," he told her.

Acnologia snapped out of the daze watching Ichigo's chiseled body. He had told her before when she asked about his power. If he ever met something or someone strong enough, he would not release his power; he would use Black Dragon Slayer Magic.

"Black Dragon's ..." Ichigo hissed as he drew his right fist back.

* * *

"What's he saying?" Jose asked one of his operators. "What is he doing?"

"I think he's going to attack sir," the operator to his right replied.

"I know that, you idiot!" Jose retorted. 'But what kind of magic is he using?'

* * *

"ROAR!"

Roar, unlike Wrath, was a much wider but weaker move. However, it has a much better decay element that went with it.

The black decaying power shout forth like some sort of cannon.

And struck one of the legs squarely.

* * *

Jose cursed as did Gajeel when they felt the sudden collapse to the left after they saw the leg take hit and get blasted away.

"Curses!" Jose muttered. "Gajeel! Go out there and make yourself useful!"

Gajeel smirked. "Yes, master."

Gajeel stared through the window at the mysterious stranger who dared to launch an attack against the Phantom Lords. Was he one of the Fairy Tail mages? He left the bridge thinking that.

Jose, on the other hand, was livid for two reasons.

One, a stranger dared to attack his fortress when he wasn't even a member of Fairy Tail. Jose had memorized all of the said guild mages' magics, and this magic was not in the information that he received.

Two, this stranger ripped through the magic defenses surrounding ever inch of this castle.

The later was something only few of his mages recognized, for they too helped to keep the defenses as well as the offensive weapon system sustained with their magic.

The first one to come to him was Juvia. "What has happened, Master?" she asked him.

Jose frowned and turned around. "Someone penetrated through one of the defenses quite easily with a single attack," he told her. "I want you to prepare the others if Fairy Tail decides to use this as a chance to invade the castle. That and Phantom MKII."

"Yes, sir."

Jose nodded and turned back to the stranger who stood firmly. He hasn't moved a single inch since he launched that attack. He was familiar with Dragon Slayer Magic, courtesy of Gajeel, who was a dragon slayer. He knew that each dragon's nature dictated what the nature of their magic was going to be. He wanted to know what this magic was, but to do so, he had to first here the magic attack's name and a sample of the power taken in a magic-boosting vial that was built for such specific purpose to capturing samples of magic.

At the moment, he had neither the sample nor the name.

He hoped that Gajeel would be able to find out after fighting the stranger.

"Activated the Phantom MKII."

"Yes, sir..."

* * *

Ichigo watched incredulously as the castle stood up, and slowly stood upright on the two hindlegs. Then it underwent some dramatic transformtaion with all sorts of things coming out of it. 'Is that thing bigger in the inside?' Ichigo asked himself mentally as he watched what should have been four times the volume of the actual castle just pop out of nowhere, especially the legs where it was thin compared to the rest of the moving fortress.

Acnologia laughed, and Ichigo turned to look at her as he put his shirt back on.

"I guess Black Dragon Slayer Magic sucks," Ichigo muttered, and Acnologia stopped laughing immediately. She pounced on him, despite the fact that they were in middle of a battlefield.

"What did you say?" she growled as she tore at him while she suffocated him with her bountiful assets. He staggered backward and began to shout muffled words incoherent things that weren't really words. She tore at him anyway, seeing that he was still standing. "Don't you mess with my magic!" "ICHIGO!"

Acnologia pushed him down to the ground as she sat on top of him. They turned to Natsu.

"Stop it! We have a war going on!" he growled at them before Happy picked him up. "I'm going to fight them." With that, he flew away.

Ichigo smirked as did Acnologia. He was about to say something but Acnologia stopped him with her own words. "Sorry, sorry. But insects' wars are quite bothersome to me," she said as she removed herself from Ichigo. Though she didn't realize it immediately, her attitude made everyone look at her. Who was she to call them insects? was the general question that they dared not speak.

Ichigo got up as well. His smirk faded though, when he saw the MKII.

"What's that thing doing?" he asked others.

Mirajane and Erza looked up and they gasped. "T-T-That's Abyss Break..." Mirajane stuttered.

Ichigo looked at her and then at the magic being casted. Whatever it was, Mirajane did not take kindly to it, which meant something bad in most cases.

"I'm going as well," Ichigo said as he touched his chest and quietly released the first level of his power; he reasoned that if Roar was able to do that much, then mages within must be stronger. Of course, he was not sure of it, but he was sure that few mages within had to spread their magic to protect some of the more vital parts of the fortress, which meant that the defense was much weaker than the actual defense magic the ones operating can put up. Of course, it was all speculation. He, however, did not want to risk chance and immediately decided on a more higher power to help him. He then drew his giant clever Zangetsu and held it up in front of him. Acnologia's eyes widened. "Bankai..."

With that single two syllable word, the entire area ripped as winds tossed pebbles and small rocks about. The winds began to condense, and much to everyone's surprise, they began to whirl around Ichigo.

Then, the wind dissipated suddenly.

And Ichigo stood where he had been before with a jet black shihakusho and Tensa Zangetsu.

Acnologia gulped. She guessed that as of his current power level he could easily fight her on equal terms.

Without words, he flew off like a wingless savior.

Acnologia raised her eyebrows as she watched him go. 'That idiot,' she thought before she sighed. She turned to the shocked Fairy Tail mages and shouted angrily. "What the hell are you fools waiting for? Get going!" she roared at them.

For a second, she thought they were deaf. They just stood there and watched Ichigo and Natsu attempt the invade on that moving fortress by themselves. Then with a sudden roar, they charged in as well.

Just as cloaked mages from Phantom Lords arrived in front of the guild to prevent them from advancing further.

Acnologia grinned. Excuse to punch a human was always good. Excuse good as this one never came by easily.

* * *

Ichigo was the first to land on the moving fortress despite the fact that Natsu had had a large head start with Natsu. 'Maybe I used too much speed because I got excited,' Ichigo thought as he swung his arm. Then he stepped forward, only to be met by a man with iron nails and bolts on his forehead and body.

"You are?" Ichigo asked.

"Gajeel. I am one of the S-class mages here at Phantom Lord guild," the man said. "Show me what you got-"

Ichigo sighed as he brought his sword down right in front of him, and the pressure alone created a giant crater that threatened to pierce -or rather flatten- the thick armor that Phantom MKII boasted. From where he was at the edge of the crater, Gajeel estimated that the crater was at least fourteen feet in radius and a foot deep in the center. While analyzing this, he trembled slightly in fear. This guy was a monster.

And hell, he thought Jose and he was a monster...

"Okay."

"WWWAAAIIITTT!"

* * *

Natsu had been flying for what seemed like few seconds, but Ichigo was much faster than Happy could ever carry him. He rushed by him with an invisible and untouchable ground to boost him like one of the firework rockets.

Natsu saw the man land and face Gajeel, the bastard who hung Levy and others to the tree like dolls. The bastard who he was going to make sure got what he deserved.

And then Natsu saw the crater form.

He gulped. That was some ridiculous power.

Natsu looked at the man facing Ichigo and he reddened in anger. "Happy, switch course to where Ichigo is!"

"EHH? But you'll get killed if you go anywhere too close to him!"

"Just do it!" he growled at the cat.

"AYE!"

Soon, Natsu was heading towards the two fighters. And in a second, he was with them.

Or rather, Happy accidentally let go of his shirt and he fell down, believing that Happy had given a more spectacular entrance. "WWWAAAAIIIITTTT!"

* * *

**Well... that took me some time. XD**

**Thanks for reading all the way, reviewers and other readers.**

**I'd also like to point out that Ichigo will not be spending a lot of time with them. In fact, he may go missing and then pop up again just before the Tenrou Island Arc. But that's a possiblity, not a true plot.**

**Ciao.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Thanks to the reviewers! **

**I know some of you felt rushed by the last part of the chapter. Forgive me. Though I read the entire Fairy Tail manga more than ten times and love the plot itself as well as the characters, I just hate the Phantom Lord vs. Fairy Tail because it is tediously long and boring. So I skipped a few scenes and may have made Jose, the guild master of Phantom Lord, a bit OOC (considering that he is ruthless and quick to temper).**

**And Ichigo being ...**

**Never. That was a spoiler.**

**But I'll say this: some of the plot has been mixed up; which means not everything happens as Fairy Tail plot does. Of course, it'll mostly stick with it, but there might be some deviation.**

**Now, Gajeel can also be spelled Gazille. I go with Gajeel because Gazille has one more letter. XD**

**:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D**

**One more. From this point, I'll make this story more life-like -meaning, it'll have Ichigo dropped unto a complicated position and that people will die.**

* * *

**:D:D:D:D:D:**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

Ichigo ducked out of the way just as Natsu swung by for precaution. Natsu flew over him by a foot and then landed between him and Gajeel.

"What do you want, Natsu?" Ichigo asked, a bit annoyed.

"Let me fight him," Natsu said, but Ichigo noticed the tone and the emotion behind that phrase. It wasn't a request; it was an "order."

Ichigo shrugged. "Fine, have it your way," he said as he disappeared in a shunpo. Gajeel's jaw nearly dropped at the speed in which Ichigo moved about.

He gulped. Had he fought this ... 'Strawberry' he would have been a toast. Just a weak frontal swing made a crater like this. Not even a magic reinforced attack. Gajeel felt it. He was a dragon slayer, who can 'sniff' magic out with his nose.

There was no magic behind the swing.

But Natsu... No, he was full of magic. Gajeel grinned at being given to a brat for his share of fighting.

"I'll cut you down, Fire-spitter," he taunted.

"I'll roast you alive, Thick Head."

There was an intense silence as the two flexed their muscles with a scowl on each of their face, charged at each other.

Happy watched from the sideline, a bit scared and dazed by the fighters.

And the fight began with a breath.

"Iron Dragon's ...! / Fire Dragon's ...! "

"BREATH!"

Literally.

* * *

Elsewhere, Ichigo was quite happy to face someone stronger than the iron bolted man.

"You say that you're actually stronger than Gajeel..."

"I am Aria, the Wind of the element 4."

"I didn't ask you your name," he said.

Aria sniffed and tears began to pour out from the fold he wore. "It's so sorrowful!"

Ichigo took a step back. What the hell was with this guy?

"Are you strong?"

"Strong?" Ichigo asked. "Why do you want to know?"

"To know exactly how far I should go."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Makarov wouldn't stand against me, nor will any dragon or guildmaster in this world, if I decide to go full out."

"You exaggerate."

"I can defeat Erza, Titania of Fairy Tail, with quarter of my power."

That must have hit something, Ichigo thought as he saw the man before him flinch. "then I must go full out as well," Aria muttered as he took off his blindfold.

Ichigo shrugged. They were all weak, just like Acnologia said. No one was a challenge to him anymore.

"I have activated space of death, 'Zero,' with my magic, stranger," the man said as the wind about him warped. "Within in, no life can exist."

Ichigo braced himself for the attack.

Sizzling invisible orbs began to form about with silhoutte, and they converged on him like a pack of hyenas.

But nothing happened.

Ichigo stood there. His clothes rippled but aside from that ... nothing.

Ichigo stared at himself and then at Aria. "How is suppose to work again?"

"I-Impossible! Even Master Jose himself-"

Ichigo shunpo'ed right up to his face, and the man gawked at the power that Ichigo seemed to spew out now that he was right in front of him. Aria began to shake. Who was this man? What was he doing here, helping Fairy Tail? Was he the strongest Fairy Tail wizard, Gildert? "Sorry, been dead for quite a bit," Ichigo muttered before he did a uppercut, knocking Aria unconscious even before he hit the floor.

**'That was too easy,'** Shiro muttered in his head. '**Ya should let me-'**

"No," he muttered before shunpo'ing away from the spot.

* * *

Mirajane was outside. She had already changed herself as Lucy and shouting at the giant robot-fortress. "I'm here! Leave my friends alone!" she shouted. She hoped that they would take this bait.

The giant fortress moved to her and picked her up. She screamed as the giant balls that were the fortress's hands squeezed. "Did you think that we'd be fooled by that?" Jose said. Mirajane flinched. "You would have the obvious target at the far back, protected by some of your other mages, perhaps?"

"Gajeel, get them!"

* * *

Gajeel grunted when he heard the guild master's shout. "I guess I'll have to see you next time," he said before he took off with a jump off from the giant robot/fortress. Natsu growled as he ran after to chase him but quickly realized that he could get to Lucy faster if he had Happy's help.

"Happy!" he shouted. He turned to Happy, but alas, the blue cat was unconscious, knocked out by a rock bigger than its head. "Why does this always have to happen?" Natsu growled before he jumped after Gajeel.

* * *

About at this time, Jose was seething over the fall of another one of the Element 4, who were crucial part of the Abyss Break. Abyss Break had now slowed down.

Then it slowed further.

'Already?' he roared within his mind. 'All of them! Useless maggots!'

"Sir?"

"What?" Jose growled as he whirled on one of the machine's operators.

"Fairy Tail forces a-are approaching..."

Jose grunted. "Send the Shade soldiers."

"Y-Yes, sir."

The operator pulled up a glass cover from a button and pressed down on it.

The Phantom MKII groaned a bit but it soon stopped and soldiers in cloak shot out from the fortress.

"Go and kill them all..."

* * *

From a third man's point of view, he would see a moving black distortion in space every three second interval.

Entering this room.

Then that room.

Then going back.

Running across the gothic hall.

Then going up to the ceiling.

This black blur was Ichigo.

And he was lost.

He had to admit it. Despite the fact that he was a "new" Ichigo, traits of "old" Ichigo remained behind. One of them was his very vague sense of direction.

'If Zenpachi were here, then he would just cut through the entire thing,' Ichigo thought. 'Maybe I should too...?'

Ichigo stopped in the middle of the hall and looked at Tensa Zangetsu. He knew that he didn't have to release his bankai to get this fight over with but he wanted to make sure that no one would touch his friends in their own homes. To drive the most base fear into the hearts of these invaders so that next time they see him or any of Fairy Tail, they would run away with their tails between their legs.

Perhaps if he went wild, it would accomplish what he wanted to do.

"Getsuga..." he muttered as Tensa Zangetsu lit up in black fire. He looked about, but in reality, he was using his eyes to spot the fire-like presence of a mage. This world did not have reiatsu, but it had plenty of these magic which was just as detectable. They flared and Ichigo saw them.

He slowly turned his body around, looking up to somewhere on the corner of the hallway that he was in. "Tensho!"

* * *

From outside, Elfman had managed to save Mirajane from being crushed by the ball-fingers of the fortress after having taken down Monsieur Sol. "Thank god..." he muttered.

"So you can control it now," she smiled as she carasssed his cheek. He changed back and tears began to from around his eyes.

"But I couldn't control it back then," he said. "I couldn't save Lisana."

She smiled sadly. "But you saved me, Elfman," she said.

He sniffed and then sobbed. Then burst out into full wailing.

She giggled, ignoring the situation the guild was in for a split second. "Let's go back to our family-"

BBBBOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!

Elfman and Mirajane stared back at the bridge of the giant fortress where the guildmaster Jose of Phantom Lord and most of the said guild's mages were in. And they also saw a black crescent moon rip out from the bridge and leave a scar deep within the structure. The giant fortress groaned as if in pain as it began to fall apart. The machine slowly fell into two part, left side with the bridge and the right with the legs.

Another black crescent moon ripped out from the fortress, this time severing the legs. The dismemberment caused a much quicker acceleration of the fall.

Elfman quickly grabbed Mirajane as the arm that they were on began to fall.

He waited for the right moment, but it was hard in the speeding world whirling around them. Mirajane held tightly unto him and his arms.

"Now!" he shouted as he kicked off from the black ball that he had been standing on just before it fell on the waters below.

He flung his body across the body of water from where he had been. He kept his eyes wide open, just looking for something to stop him.

Water.

That was the only thing. There was sand on the shores, but the impact between sand and his body would send enough shock throughout him and Mirajane to kill either of them. Luckily, he was already heading for water.

* * *

Ichigo jumped out from the falling structure, soaring into the sky with a gray smoke trail behind him. Everyone watched him as he shunpo'ed to where the Fairy Tail mages were, defending themselves from the Shade soldiers. He came down with a crash.

And just as he did, a large crater formed where he stood.

He slowly stood up even as everyone eyed him in fear and awe. He slowly turned to the ruins of Phantom Lord guild's HQ had been, and he grinned as he saw Jose on top of it. Soon, rest of the Phantom Lords were slowly crawling out of the ruin but Ichigo did not doubt that the fall had killed quite a few of the Phantom Lords.

"You did quite the damage, Ichigo," Makarov said as he walked up to Ichigo's side.

The said shinigami turned to the midget giant and grinned. "That's nothing compared to what I can actually accomplish," he said.

"So I heard," Makarov muttered, remembering the quick conversation that he had with Acnologia (though he did not know that she had been the dragon of destruction that he feared), in which she comment about Ichigo holding back.

"There will be an all-out battle, Makarov," Ichigo said. "Unless you have a plan."

The old man nodded. "I intend to use a certain magic that'll reduce my enemies to bits," he said. "No one can escape it."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "You better use it then before they start again."

"No."

"Eh, why not?" Ichigo asked, confused.

"I must follow Fairy Tail's tradition," he said as he used his giant magic to boost his size... And his vocal volume. "JOSE!"

Ichigo quickly blocked his ears. That was freakishly loud.

"I give you one chance!" he said as he brought up his hand. "I will count to three, within which you must withdraw your forces!"

Jose did not seem to make much movement. But with a twitch of his head, from what Ichigo could see, the Phantom Lord mages began to move against Fairy Tail.

"One!"

Shade soldiers jumped upon the Fairy Tail mages, who fought back immediately.

"Two!" Jose fired his own dark magic, but the distance was great between the two guildmasters.

"Three!"

No change.

"Fairy Law, activate."

There was a brilliant flash that reigned down from the heavens and struck the entire area of the battlefield. Erza and few others seemed to lighten up, but many of the other Fairy Tail mages were confused; they did not think that their master would use a area-of-effect magic that could harm them as well. However, that thought was brief before the Shade Soldiers began to visibly vanish before their eyes. Erza quickly went on to explain the effects of Fairy Law, how the most powerful magic of the guild did not effect anyone deemed neutral or ally to the guild of Fairy Tail and leaves the allies and guild members unharmed: the ultimate holy magic in guild's possession. People all around watched in awe and respect as Fairy Law swept about them.

Acnologia nodded imperceptibly as as she felt the Fairy Law about her. This was a strong magic, one that could rival her strongest Black Dragon Magic.

Yes, Black Dragon Magic, not Black Dragon _Slayer_ Magic.

She couldn't help but chuckle. Dragon Slayer Magics were a branch of Dragon Magics, which were basically same thing aside from the fact that the Dragon Magic was much stronger than the slayer Magics. Ichigo, however, seemed to have enough power behind each thrust of his magic that his Slayer Magic was almost indistinguishable from Dragon Magic. Yes, that Ichigo was really a beast at whatever he did... 'I wonder if he's good in bed as well...' That thought made her laugh. She was crazy. He may be powerful, but he was still human.

Just a human... right?

Cana and few others looked at Acnologia as if she was a bit crazy...

She smiled softly at Ichigo's images, and then surprised herself with even a bigger smile and a blush, realizing that she could smile like she just had thinking about a man.

Then as the light faded and the blue sky returned, Fairy Tail mages shouted in joy at having won a war.

* * *

Not too far away, Gajeel laid on his back and Natsu on his face as well.

They had fought like crazy, and the light failed to reach them here.

"...So your dragon disappeared too?" Gajeel asked.

"Yeah..." Natsu replied, continuing their conversation.

"When?"

"7,7, 777."

"... Too much sevens."

Natsu grinned. "But why did they leave?"

"Beats me. I'm just tried of looking for Metallica."

"I'm still looking for Igneel."

"You won't find him."

"No, I will eventually."

Natsu got up and sat on his ass. "You know, you're a teddybear inside."

"I am not!"

"Of course, you're not," Natsu grinned as he watched Gajeel stand up and walk away.

"From all the cheering, I'm guessing that you guys won," he said.

"We always do when we fight for our family," he replied.

Gajeel looked at the Fire Dragon Slayer. "Family, huh?"

"Yes, family."

Gajeel shrugged and then turned to Lucy. "I won't be going after you anymore, seeing as the cheer above says that Jose is gone for good," he said. Lucy gulped. He grinned sadistically.

* * *

Ichigo stood at the top of the ruined Phantom Lord's headquarters and sighed. This could have been a chance for him to actually unleash a bit of his power, but he didn't get to. Though it was a bit frustrating, it was no big deal as far as he was concerned. Fairy Tail, the guild and its members, were safe and sound. Perhaps he should stick around here and join them. Then he'll be closer to them to protect them, not that they needed much protecting if their guildmaster could muster something like this at the snap of his finger.

A magic so warm...

A power so friendly and deadly.

Ichigo slightly envied it.

His eyes darkened for a second as he remembered all the destruction that Mugetsu had wrought when he used it, killing anything in its path.

As he watched the guild members jump on the docks, Ichigo smiled, unaware of the creeping Aria behind him.

'I got him!' Aria screamed mentally as he jumped up at Ichigo.

But Ichigo was a 'god' in terms of relax, strength, and self-awareness compared to Aria.

Ichigo simply tilted backward, but with a spin, he brought Tensa Zangetsu down upon the sneaker's head and then his body. Ichigo stopped just above the ground that he stood on, and Aria hovered in the air like a statue. Blood spewed out like a fountain from where he had been cut and Ichigo grinned in satsifaction.

The huge man suddenly shot backward and he landed on his back, not too far away from Ichigo. He slowly walked over to Aria and stood over the gapping me.

Ichigo's grin remained plastered to his face.

Then all of a sudden, it gave away to a hollow glare and an O-shaped lips.

Aria looked up to Ichigo in horror. The man's face looked like a doll. It was literally three holes on a smooth surface.

"Take your master and go. And then never return," Ichigo said.

But Aria was too scared to listen to Ichigo's warnings, and his instincts kicked in.

He lunged with a scream.

Ichigo stared silently in a space of a second before tilting his zanpakuto.

Shhhkkkk.

Aria froze in mid-lunge. He looked down and saw the black blade in his stomach.

"You missed your chance..."

"Getsuga..."

"Please... no...!" Aria begged.

"Tensho."

* * *

Acnologia and Makarov were the first ones to sense a irregularity in the air before a black Getsuga Tensho ripped up from the ruined Phantom Lord HQ.

They and the other guild members watched in shock as that single attack rose up into the air and dissipated hundreds of kilometers above the site.

But before it dissipated into nothingness, everyone saw it and saw a black crescent moon in broad daylight.

Acnologia quickly sprung into action. She used the muscle power of her dragon legs -though she didn't transform into them- and launched herself up into the sky.

Makarov quickly followed with his own jump.

They both landed on top of the ruins and looked about, searching for Ichigo.

And they saw him.

Acnologia felt two things at the site. She felt relieved that Ichigo was alright and safe, but at the same time, a thick network of apprehension settled upon her and she shivered.

Makarov felt two things as well. He was relieved as Acnologia was for Ichigo's safety, but at the same time, he was repulsed by what he saw.

And most people would only be repulsed by what they would see.

Ichigo slowly turned around with a thin grin that stretched from jawline to jawline. He held Aria's head by his hair in his right. His black blade was in his right, slowly dripping red blood. And at his feet was the lower half of Aria's body, severed from the upper half by Getsuga Tensho. Blood from both halves of the body poured and then trickled unto the stones and feet below them. Organs were sprawled out in every direction and Ichigo seemed to be ... enjoying the scene before him.

But the true horror of this scene were Ichigo's eyes.

They looked completely different from what the two had seen before.

A smooth doll face.

Two holes with black abyss within them.

Ichigo looked at them for a second before he turned back.

"Nice day, isn't it?"

"You ... _mad_ man!"

Ichigo turned around and his face was back to normal, but he was scowling -as ever.

"What?"

"You just killed a defeated enemy!" Makarov scolded harshly. "What have you done, killing him in cold blood?"

Ichigo looked down at what he held and the lower half.

He shrugged. "He deserved it."

Makarov's face went red. "No one deserved to be killed, Ichigo. No one, period."

Acnologia wanted to disagree, but she kept her mouth shut. This man was strong, thus he deserved respect to whatever ideology he held, whether or not it fit into hers.

"...Seems like you are weak," Ichigo said, surprising both Acnologia and Makarov.

This wasn't the Ichigo she knew...

This wasn't the Ichigo he had talked with only half a month ago.

He dropped the dead Aria unto the stones and turned to Makarov. "I was born into a world of endless struggle, Makarov. I know killing intent when I see one," he said.

"But you did not have to kill that man! All you had to do was restrain him!" Makarov replied. "Yet with all the power you have -with the power of a god!- you killed him like he was an insect!"

Ichigo grinned. He opened his mouth to reply, his sword already up and pointing at Makarov, but suddenly he froze. "Ahh... Ahhh...!" he moaned, as if in pain.

"Ichigo?" Acnologia called.

"AHHHH!" Ichigo roared, gripping his head in pain.

Acnologia stood firm and Makarov inched back when a sonicboom bombarded them, obviously from Ichigo.

Ichigo fell on his knees, or would have if he hadn't stopped himself midway by shoving Tensa Zangetsu into one of the bigger stone blocks.

The two watchedi n confusion as Ichigo slowly stood up.

"...What are you guys doing here?"

* * *

Fairy Tail was rebuilding and they were being interrogated by the Magic Council, who were wise enough to stay away from Ichigo until one of the Council member arrived.

"You don't remember?" Acnologia asked.

Ichigo slowly shook his head. "I remember Makarov growing big... And then a light coming down on me. Then I blacked out. I guessed that you two came to find me when I opened my eyes... Did something happen?" he asked.

Makarov and Acnologia looked at each other. Not long after asked of that question, Makarov grabbed Acnologia and dragged her away from Ichigo. "Alright, tell me what you know," he said seriously with his serious eyes set upon Acnologia's own eyes. Acnologia tilted her head to the side, as if she was thinking.

"No idea."

"W-"

"Before you say something, I must also say something."

".. Go ahead," he said, both of them talking softly.

"Black Dragon Slayer Magic."

For a second, Makarov looked confused before realization hit him and he inched back a bit.

"He is the first person I've ever taught the magic to. I don't know much about his side effects, considering that I derived heavily from many of the dark element of the Black Dragon Magic that I use."

"...So Fairy Law must have triggered a side-effect within Ichigo," Makarov thought outloud.

Acnologia nodded. "Personally, I'd rather not have him run around a psychopath. I didn't even know about this; I mean, I was fine, no?" Acnologia said, and then realized that she hadn't been fined: she had been affected as well.

For once in her life, she didn't feel hatred for the humans. That was strange.

"Oh..." Acnologia muttered, still quiet.

"What?" Makarov asked, still quiet as well.

"I don't hate humans right now, and I used Black Dragon Magic..." she said.

"And that's supposed to mean?" he asked in turn.

"...Why did he go insane?" she asked quietly to no one in particular before she turned back to see Ichigo, who grinned at her like an idiot and waved, waiting for her.

* * *

Ichigo was no idiot, but he put up the idiot facade he hated so much. Something was going on here, and he was confused. Why wouln't the two tell him about it? He was capable of taking in anything.

He knew that this new thing that the two were discussing were involved around him, and he was determined to know why.

He then heard that one of the Phantom Lord's Element 4, Aria, was found dead with his body severed in half. Perhaps he should start there. After all, he was the only casualty of the fight.

So he stood up, only to black out and fall back down.

* * *

Deep within Ichigo's inner world, Hichigo groaned as he began to dissipate for good. 'Shit, this is bad... What the hell was that-?' But before he could finish his thoughts, Tensa Zangetsu rushed over to him and quickly stopped the disintegration process by applying kidos that he knew. "What's happening to us?" Hicihigo asked as he saw some of the structures fall apart.

Tensa Zangetsu shook his head. "I don't know..."

"Shit...!" Hichigo muttered before he slammed his fist into the building he was on.

* * *

**Ichigo being insane...**

**Yes, Ichigo now has a defection - he goes insane when in contact with Fairy Law, a holy-element magic. **

**Thanks for reading so far, and I hope to update this soon!**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Ichigo sighed. Acnologia and Makarov wouldn't tell him about anything, and no one else knew what had happened to him, other than the fact that he had used a Getsuga Tensho right after the Fairy Law fell upon them. 'Maybe I'm the one who killed him,' Ichigo thought gravely. And that would not be a good thing, considering that the Council was here-though less than before- and investigating, and because he didn't remember shit about the incident.

"You dare say that again?"

Ichigo stopped his pacing and turned to the dining area where all the tables were set up. Or at least, most of the tables were. He saw Erza standing and glaring at a gold haired man with some sort of headset covering his ears. But the look of the headset was ... eccentric. Who was spikes on them?

"Then I'll say it more clearly, Erza. This guild doesn't need weak bastards," the man said, still sitting down on the bench.

Ichigo felt a vein slowly rise up on his forehead.

"You bastard..."

"To be looked down upon by guild like Phantom Lord... How embarrassing. I couldn't even show my face to anyone," he said.

"Laxus is back?"

"Mouthing off as soon as he gets back..."

"S-rank Laxus."

And then he turned to the three whom Ichigo knew were one of the victims of the fight. "And you three. I heard that you were all defeated by iron dragon Gazille! You're a disgrace!- Hey! Who were you guys again?"

"That's enough!"

Everyone turned to Mirajane, who was right next to Ichigo behind the counter.

"The matter is closed, Laxus. And we won. You also weren't there to help us fight against them, so don't add oil to the fire. Master said that."

Laxus grinned. "Of course, I wasn't. But if I were, I wouldn't have been beat up so badly."

Erza twitched.

Ichigo felt like punching the asshole.

Natsu just acted. "You bastard!" he roared as he launched himself at Laxus with his right fist in red fire already. Laxus, however, just "teleported" away from Natsu, and began to slowly taunt him.

Ichigo sighed. 'So even in a guild such as this, there are assholes...' he thought.

"And we needed help from a random stranger!"

Ichigo turned to face Laxus, who did the same.

"You wanna fight me, punk?" Ichigo grunted.

Everyone gawked at him, including Natsu, Gray, and Erza.

"Ah?" Laxus said as veins popped up.

Mirajane, however, was scared shitless. "I-Ichigo, don't go fighting Laxus," she said.

Ichigo just yawned. "I mean, he acts all tough when he should be Ichigo cut himself off to dodge a lightning bolt thrown by Laxus. The lightning bolt sped onward and struck the wooden board behind, leaving a scorch behind. Ichigo remained frozen a bit before he slowly turned his eyes to Laxus. "So you do want to fight?'Ill beat a lesson into his head,' he thought.

Laxus, on the other hand, was livid.

"You piece of shit," he growled. "Who the f*ck do you think you are?" he roared, and the magic infused into his body generated a pulse of shockwave. It was nothing much, only strong as a light wind, but it was enough to strike fear into many of the weaker Fairy Tail mages and some of the Rune Knights stationed near the Fairy Tail construction site.

Ichigo looked indifferently at Laxus before he chuckled abruptly. Everyone looked at him in shock. Either he was mad or he was attempting suicide.

"Someone much more powerful than you," he said and raised the spiritual pressure up a notch.

The entire city came under a baffling and unexplainable pressure that felt like a thousand meter of water above them. A crushing, heavy, and malevolent pressure. Most of the mages took the pressure and fell directly on their knees. Only Erza, Mystogan(who came by mysteriously and quietly just when the pressure contest began), Makarov, and Acnologia were standing up. Acnologia, however, felt her legs tremble as did Makarov and the rest.

Laxus was on his knees as well.

Ichigo slowly moved around the wooden counter, which seemed to be unaffected by Ichigo's pressure, and made his way over to Laxus.

Laxus was just kneeling, unable to look up. He stared at the dirt ground with wide eyes.

Ichigo stood before him and remained there for long moments before he dispelled the pressure by sealing it back in him. "That was the pressure, the killing intent, of a enemy I fought on a daily basis before I came here, Laxus. Weak?" Ichigo smirked and looked about. "Everyone is weak to me. Even your guild master."

Most mages seemed to want to protest against that, but Makarov shut them up with a swipe of his hand.

Ichigo crouched in front of Laxus and put his hand on the blonde's head. Then he ruffled with the hair.

"Learn to understand and protect, Laxus. That is the responsibility of those who are powerful," Ichigo said quietly. They remained there like that before Ichigo smirked, noticing something he had not. "Sorry, I must have done too much." This, he meant, was for entire guild about him and Laxus.

They all gulped.

Except Acnologia. Instead, she jumped kicked Ichigo in the face. Ichigo fell backwards, and momentarily reminded about his father, before he grabbed her leg and flung her up into the sky. "Dammit, I was doing something serious here!" he yelled at her before he saw Acnologia come slowly down in her dragon wings... without revealing her entire form. Ichigo grinned as he saw her land behind him over his shoulder. "... Strong as always," she growled.

"Well, that's a beautiful set of wings you have there," Mirajane said, trying to defuse the situation.

Acnologia hesitated before she smiled. "Thank you."

"Is it a take over magic?"

Acnologia felt sweat drop. Not good... "Uh-"

Ichigo noticed the trouble immediately and he went and grabbed Acnologia by the hand. "Ah-chan, you promised to go out with me. I think now's a good time," he said with a fake smile. Acnologia did not understand what the hell was happening for a second, but she blushed and stuttered while half of Fairy Tail gawked. He then proceeded to force her into his arms in a bridal-style and with a shunpo, disappeared before the masses...But the action in itself caused more than few dirty thoughts to appear...

Elfman was crying. 'He a man...' he thought.

Laxus slowly stood up and quietly left the construction site, still shaken by Ichigo's display of passive power.

* * *

Somewhere else in Fiore, the Magic Council sat once more around their meeting room and looked at the documents made from both Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord mages. Surprisingly, Fairy Tail was the defender in this new mess...

"I fought with him briefly before withdrawing and allowing him to save Fairy Tail," Siegrand began. "And I'd like to point out that this man uses Black Dragon Slayer Magic, the most powerful of the lost Dragon Slayer magics."

Half of the council members groaned.

"Not to mention, he joined Fairy Tail..."

* * *

"That was close..." Acnologia said, clinging tightly unto his neck and bare back as Ichigo sailed through the air like a dragon would, without the wings of course.

"Yeah, you were sweating like crazy," he said. She looked at him with wide-fearful eyes, and he only grinned back. "What is showing fear that bad?"

"For dragons like me, yes!" she said. "I should be the one who strikes fear into them. I shouldn't be cowering at a freakin' question!"

Ichigo chuckled, surprising Acnologia. Within moments, Ichigo landed them somewhere in the town's outskirt, just where he had displayed his power to the townspeople first time around. Acnologia immediately got off from him and turned around, facing her back to him to hide the blush. "I'm a member of Fairy Tail now," he said. Acnologia's eyes widened and her shoulders tensed as Ichigo showed his guild crest, printed unto his right shoulder. However, she couldn't see it, for her eyes were facing the other way. "So I needed to ask if you-"

"If I want to just shoo off now?"

He stopped, shocked by her words. "What?" he asked her. What the hell was she saying?

"I'm sure you wanted to put that in a more ... subtle way," she muttered. Her mutters were soft but loud enough for herself and Ichigo to hear clearly.

"Wait, Acnologia-" Ichigo began but she cut him off again.

"I know, I know. I've already taught you all about this world. Should've recognized that quite some time ago and left you. My fault," she said, managing to keep herself from showing any signs of visible emotions, but her eyes were growing watery too fast for her to control. "I'll be going now." She then proceeded to use a transportation magic of sort and disappeared from Ichigo's view.

Ichigo stood there, shocked. His usual scowl was wiped cleanly from his face, replaced by a hollow look in his eyes and a blank face.

He was sure that she wanted to stick with him. She always had. Starting from the day he finished learning magic from her -and when they began to travel together- to this day, never had she say something like that. Sure, her mouth sometimes became vulgar and hateful against the humans. What forced her? Perhaps he did something. Perhaps she believe that he did not appreciate her presence. Perhaps she truly did believe that she was in his way, like a sensei holding down a student with his ideals, not letting the student advance further. But the fact was, he did not know what was the true reason behind her actions.

This was complicated.

One moment, they were looking at each other with such ... affection, and now she was leaving him.

"... I need to ask her," he said and closed his eyes.

And homed unto her magic signature.

She was not too far away, but the magic was ... sober. Almost on the verge of being rampant.

He needed to see her. To know what she was thinking.

To force her to tell him, because with the pain in his chest right now, he felt like dying.

* * *

**AoL**

* * *

Acnologia sat alone next to a small pond and cried in her human form. She didn't know what else to do. She haven't felt such ... pain in all her life.

Is this when humans say that 'love hurts?'

"Waaahh... Ahh...Waaah..." she cried with her eyes on her forearm, and her arms on top of her drawn knees. "I-Ichigo... Ahhh... ahhh..."

The pain continued to hurt her. There was stopping it.

She wanted to hurt herself. She was so stupid. Of course, he was a human. He looked human, loved human, and acted human. Why did she even hope that he would be different, that he would be like her?

No... She was alone once more in this world. Alone because she was the thirty-first Black Dragon of Apocalypse. She was a dragon. Dragons lived with constant pain, whatever in shape or form. She knew that her source of pain were the humans, and that had become the reason she hated them. But she hadn't realized that her pain would be this sort of pain. It just wasn't something she had prepared herself for.

Unbeknownst to her, her magic had become rampant, and slowly etched away life all about her.

Ichigo had only wanted to stay near his kind, and that hurt her. A lot.

She felt so selfish for wanting him only for herself.

She wanted to just hid in her old cave.

She wished that she hadn't come out of that cave that day when Ichigo appeared.

She wished that she hadn't talked with him all those time she traveled with him.

She wished ...

She wished that he would come and get her.

But wishes weren't meant to be fulfilled.

So she wiped her tears and stood up, only to bring more tears to her face.

"You, young lady," Ichigo said as he pushed unto her forehead with his right index. "Need to speak what's in your mind."

Without thinking, she jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, leaving Ichigo flustered and relieved.

"Now," he said as he pried her off. When he managed to, she was only few inches away from his face, her arms were still on him, and her legs were still around his waist, holding tightly. "Start explaining."

* * *

Ichigo laughed at cost to Acnologia's embarrassment.

"S-Stop laughing, you idiot!" she growled at him and sent some punches. He dodged them easily.

"Oh~. Is Miss Apocalypse embarrassed?" he teased with a huge grin on his face.

"S-Shut up!" she yelped, sending more punches.

He dodged them all. In the end, Acnologia became tired and stopped. "Asshole," she muttered before she laid down on the the grass just beyond a foot from the edge of the pond. "..."

"I love you too."

She blushed tomato red and squeaked, and then turned redder when she realized that she just squeaked.

When he had demanded that she start explaining, she did... while crying. That had been embarrassing, but on top of that, he kissed her forehead afterwards, saying that he loved her. Yes, he admitted that his love was not the same as hers, but he appreciated the affection. He pointed out that he did not say that he couldn't reciprocate the feeling, since he was not sure where she stood in his affection. He did, however, promise her that he would stick with her until someone did win his affection ...

Though last statement had been a little downer, she was happier than ever.

* * *

AoL

* * *

When Ichigo and Acnologia came back, they were confronted by three people.

Natsu.

Cana.

And Grey.

These three were the ones capable of achieving higher heights, but were at a lower level due to lack of experience and power. Ichigo had this already analyzed when he talked with many of the Fairy Tail mages when he first arrived. With Natsu, he had even greater depth of analysis, since he actually "fought" with the Fire Dragon Slayer. He learned that Grey was on the same level as the fire-spitter, but Cana, he was not sure about.

"Yes?" Ichigo asked, but Acnologia, who was hanging on his left arm, did not acknowledge them.

"...We want to be your apprentice."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow.

"I don't take apprentices," he replied without a change in tone.

"But you have to!" Grey said with a frustrated expression.

"Why?"

"...Because we want to be stronger," Cana said. "We don't want to be beaten down by the likes of Phantoms when they came. Sure Grey and Natsu were able to defeat one of the Element 4 each, but they were completely spent afterwards."

"That's pretty strong enough in this world," Ichigo replied as he tried to walk away, but Natsu blocked his path.

"You said that you'll give me a good fight if you ever come back and I'm here," Natsu said.

Ichigo frowned. He didn't remember making such promise. He most likely would not have, but ...

Oh, what the hell.

Acnologia, who saw the seriousness in his face, removed herself and walked away from the two. She then sat down on one of the nearby benches just as other guild members began to move them away to ensure that they were not going to be broken when the two starts fighting.

"Alright then. No range magic though. We don't want to destroy the guild," Ichigo said as he pulled out Zangetsu.

Natsu punched a fist into the air in victory before he quickly recomposed himself and got ready to fight. He took his regular stance, arms stretched out about and knees bent. "In three?"

Ichigo shrugged. "Eh... 3 ... 2... 1... Go."

Natsu sprang forward like a coil and threw a punch at Ichigo's face.

Ichigo caught the speeding fist and threw Natsu into the sky, his back facing the ground.

Natsu ... wailed as he flew higher and higher. However, he realized something and he quickly faced the ground with his face with a twirl of his body midair. "Fire Dragon's Fist!" he roared as his hands were lit aflame with a large fireball, almost big as his own body, and he came down like a rocket unto Ichigo.

Ichigo intercepted the attack with his Zangetsu and grinned just as Natsu's fists came down unto his sword. The sword and the flaming fists crashed, and a small shockwave, only strong enough as a meek wind, rippled throughout the construction area.

"Maybe we should take it elsewhere?" Ichigo asked with a grin.

"Hell, yes!"

* * *

Acnologia sighed as she watched the two go. "Boys," she muttered.

"I heard that you were his mentor," Grey said as he approached her.

"Yes. But what is that of concern to you?"

"Aconny. Will you make me your student as well?" he asked. "Me and Cana."

"Hell no. I hate people," she replied with a scowl.

Grey raised an eyebrow. "Isn't Ichigo a person as well-?"

"Ichigo, a normal human?" Acnologia said and then burst out laughing. "That guy ain't a human, little boy," she said as she ruffled with his hair. "Maybe a god, but definitely not a human."

"You talk as if gods exist," Cana said.

"Dragons exist, don't they?"

That left Cana and Grey flustered. They have been around Natsu for so long that, they became used to the notion that dragons existed. It was only when she asked them about the existence of dragons that most people did not believe in dragon's existence.

"But ... gods are ... gods," Grey replied.

"Well, dragons are dragons, baka," she said.

* * *

Ichigo and Natsu was out on the spot where Ichigo had first fought Erza. That was ironic and quite discouraging to Natsu, but he kept pushing that thought aside and threw as many fists as he can to land a hit -any hit!- on Ichigo.

However, the said man was too strong and too fast for him. And he also took joy in landing a hit on his head every 5 punches Natsu missed.

That was, of course, frustrating.

Natsu threw a right, and then another right before he tried a kick. to the shin. All missed. Then he roared and threw a right hook and a left jab. Those missed.

Ichigo disappeared and Natsu felt a sharp sting on his neck. The pain ringed in his ear and he stumbled forward.

"Ugh... No fair!" he groaned as he shook himself, trying in vain to rid himself of the shock.

"Come on, Natsu. Is this all you have?" Ichigo taunted.

"Fire Dragon's ..."

"Uh oh," Ichigo muttered.

"Roar!"

Natsu shot forth a giant wave of red-hot flame that incinerated the grass beneath and heated the air around. Ichigo took the shot directly, but with a slash of his zanpaktou, the flame vanished like a good nightmare.

Natsu scowled. No matter what attack he used, Ichigo parried, dodged, dissipated, or countered them without ever using anything so much as close to his "Getsuga Tensho," "Sho," and "Black Dragon Slayer Magic." That was a quite a dent to his pride.

"Well, Natsu, I have to say that you are doing quite fine," Ichigo said.

'In some aspects, he is worse than Laxus, seriously,' Natsu thought as he got ready to fire another Roar, but Ichigo stopped him with his raised hand. "What?" he asked.

"You asked me about being my student, no?" Ichigo asked.

"Yes. Will you-"

"If you manage to land a hit on me. With your fists only."

Natsu grinned.

"No taking back words," Natsu said.

Ichigo raised his right hand. "I promise," he said with a exasperated face he managed to make. Then he put up his serious face. "But I won't be going easy with my fists."

Natsu gulped. His legs trembled a bit, for he knew the strength of those arms and hands from the fight between him and Erza showed, so he was in no rush to run into them when they wanted to hit something. But hey, if few hits on his face can get him the apprentice position under Ichigo, that was a fair trade.

"In 3..."

* * *

When Natsu came to, he was lying on the ground and Ichigo was looking down at him. He didn't remember exactly how he had ended up in that position, but he was sure Ichigo's fist did their job when they rushed at each other.

"I guess I didn't make it, huh?" Natsu muttered.

Ichigo grinned. "Come on," he said as he extended his hand. Natsu took it and stood up with a push from his legs.

"You are just too strong, Ichigo," Natsu grumbled.

"Me, strong?" Ichigo said with a faked surprise. "No, I am not! Acnologia is stronger than me... At the moment."

"At the moment?" Natsu raised an eyebrow. "You're becoming stronger even now?" he asked.

Ichigo shook his head. "I am already strong," he said as he showed him his seals. "I have over 75% of my power sealed, Natsu."

Natsu didn't comprehend for a second. Then the realization hit him and he paled. He opened his mouth to say something but the shock left him speechless.

Ichigo laughed heartily at Natsu's lack of words.

"Don't worry. You did, though, manage to get me," he said as he showed the dragon slayer his shirt. There was dirt on it.

"That's dirt."

"And there's dirt on your fist."

"... I hit you?"

"Well, you skidded by my skin... But I'm willing to let that go," he said.

Natsu trembled without changing his wide-eyes.

"YES!" he shouted happily and ran around in circles.

"My training will consist of three-day 'wake-up, eat, fight, eat, fight, eat, fight, and sleep' routine," Ichigo announced. Natsu stopped dancing immediately and gawked at him with a unhinged jaw. "And each fight is roughly two hours long with no rest."

"T-Tha-That's ridiculous!" he complained.

"You wanted it, baka." Ichigo grinned before he shunpo'ed away, leaving Natsu to consider what kind of situation he had thrown himself into.

Next up was Grey.

Then Cana.

'Actually, why don't I take them up at once?' Ichigo mused just as he arrived at the guild construction site. He saw Acnologia talking to the two of them. He smirked deviously and sneaked up on her.

It didn't end so well for him.

* * *

Cana and Grey gasped for breath as they faced Ichigo in the same clearing Natsu faced the said man. Unlike Natsu, they were allowed to use magic to hit him, but Ichigo was too good of a shunpo artist to get hit by any of their attack, whether it was a superspeed ice arrow or area effect card slash.

This time as well.

"Damn you, stop dodging!" Grey growled as Ichigo dodged another one of his ice-make magic attacks, this time in the form of a spear.

Ichigo chuckled. "Then it wouldn't be much of a challenge then!" he replied from far above, spinning in midair. As he came down, he eyed Cana, who was about to cast a magic on him. HE was not sure what kind of magic she still used, despite the fact that he saw plenty of her magic go by him. There was a lot of ways she performed them, but he guessed that if there was a web on any one of those cards, then she can pull it out and use it.

And that was exactly Cana had, actually. She threw a grey card at Ichigo and midway, it turned into a large net, easily big enough to catch Ichigo within it.

Though it would have been successful at capturing most fist-fighting mages, Ichigo had a sword, and he used it to cut the net into half.

"Not bad," he said as he grab both of the net and threw it back at her. One fell across her face and chest while the other got her abdomen and her left leg, and they pinned her down to the ground. "But not good enough."

"You should've paid attention to me."

Ichigo slowly turned around and saw Grey with a ice sword at his neck.

"You sure?" Ichigo grinned almost happily.

Grey eyed him, confused. "Wh-" As soon as he said that, a giant meat cutter was by his neck, and the Ichigo in front of him shimmered away. Grey's eyes widened.

"Was that illusion-?"

"Naw, I was there when I said 'You sure?'. I just moved really quickly afterwards."

Grey dropped his sword.

"I guess we didn't pass," Cana sighed as she freed herself of the webs.

Ichigo shrugged and pulled Zangetsu away from Grey.

"Well, you two pass anyway," he said indifferently.

Grey and Cana blinked. Then they jumped about, happier than having been given a chance for this fight only an hour ago. "We made it!" Cana shouted happily, and for some reason, that phrase reminded Ichigo of his college application and exams (which do not exist in United States anymore, but still exist in Korea, Japan, and China).

'They don't need to know that,' Ichigo thought.

Ichigo shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, Natsu, tell them of the schedule," he said. Grey and Cana looked a confusingly at him before they turned their attention to Natsu. The dragon slayer approached them and gave them a brief explanation of the schedule. Cana paled. "And nothing that inhibits training, or I'll kick you out of the apprenticeship."

Cana paled further.

"And no stripping. I don't like seeing people going naked," he added.

Grey grimaced.

"And you go to a mission every month, even if it takes away training time."

The three nodded.

"But for today, I'm going to go and spend time with Acnologia," he said.


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello, readers! **

**I'm here today to tell you that I made a small mistake with Siegrand.**

**It's not Siegrand but Siegrain.**

**So from this point of the story, I'll be changing it, but it really won't matter since Jellal will be appearing soon with the introduction of the Lacrima Tower Arc (which I will not be doing).**

**Chapter 9  
**

Ichigo glared at Cana, who sat before him, sweating a lot.

"Say what?" Ichigo growled.

Cana laughed nervously. "W-Well, I eh... Ha ha..."

"... Talk straight or you're running four miles within an hour."

"I drank four barrels of beer, sir!" she replied immediately with a salute.

Most people would think that Ichigo is weird. After all, a mile in an hour? It would be a piece of cake! At least on a normal course. However, Ichigo had his own course. It was full of traps, wild animals, and whatnot that made it seem like the mile was longer than what it actually was. But perhaps the worst thing was that only thing the runner can do ... is run.

"Alright, you're running the lap. With the barrels."

Cana gawked at Ichigo and was about to protest, but shut her mouth close. Last time one of his disciples ... complained, he had them run the mile... With a set of iron armor weighing roughly four hundred pounds. That was something she did not want.

"Hai..." she muttered with a dropping head.

* * *

Natsu and Grey screamed as they raced against each other and the animals within the jungle track.

"H-How the hell did he prepare something like this?" Natsu screamed as he dodged a slash from a giant tiger.

"Didn't you hear him when he first explained? This is space-warp magic!" Grey shouted back at him as he dodged the same slash. "And he captured all those beasts and shoved them into here!"

"Where did he find them?" Natsu cried as he kept his tired legs going.

"HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?"

And on they ran, unaware of the fact that Cana had just joined the race.

* * *

Ichigo and Acnologia watched the three run for their life (literally) while they ate popcorn, enjoying the show "voluntarily" provided to them by his three disciples.

Also unaware of the fact that the Magic Council knew of Acnologia's true self, thanks to one sneaky ex-Phantom Lord mage, who shall not be named for he will die anyway at Ichigo's hands... Or at least that's what he thinks will happen anyway, which became the reason why he told the Council.

But you readers will never know him because the guy's a pathetic extra.

* * *

AoL

* * *

Magic Council sat around in a circle. They were doing that a lot lately, and they hated it, especially when they hated each other's gut as well, all for good reason, none of them trivial or personal.

But this new event led them to band under the name of the Council once more.

"I don't know how to put it," Org groaned as he passed the document in his hands to Dolma, the head of the Magic Council. "This goes against everything Fairy Tail stands for. But still, a murder is a murder..."

"Tell me about it," Dolma muttered as he saw through the pictures taken by the Rune Knights. "This is grotesque."

"Something makes me think that this is not the work of Fairy Tail," Michello said as he tossed his copy of the document unto the table. "This is obviously someone who had a grudge against this victim and used the warfare between the Phantom Lords and the Fairy Tail to achieve his goal in killing him."

Shitou nodded. "Fairy Tail has never killed anyone in their long-duration as a guild. They have seriously maimed, injured, or insulted others, but never killed. Their history in itself is a big evidence that they are innocent of this."

"But what about this new member of theirs? The one that easily ran through Siegrain's illusions?" Ultear asked, almost in cue.

"We ... will need to watch him. He is, after all, stronger than any one of us here," Siegrain added with his Masked advisor at his side.

"Very well. We'll send one of the Rune Knights to act as a spy within the guild," Dolma said. "And this concludes today's meeting secession. Next meeting will be held next Friday... Dismissed."

* * *

AoL

* * *

"Aconny," Makarov called and the said dragon woman turned around. "A talk in my office?"

"Sure," she said and stood up from where she was. She kissed Ichigo on the forehead, who had been sitting right next to her, and went towards the office.

She walked pass multiple closed and open doors, all storage and other offices for documents and such, and then finally entered the guildmaster's office.

"What is it that you want?" she asked him with her arms closed.

"Well, I want to know why you, a black dragon, is here amongst us humans. You do realize that it does make me a bit ... uncomfortable," Makarov replied with an anime sweat.

"I'm only here because Ichigo is," she replied. "And as long as he doesn't allow me, I won't be harming any humans."

0Makarov felt his eyebrows rise. "You've given over your freedom to him?" he asked. "Like marr-"

"No!" she shouted, her face blushing red. "...Not yet," she added softly.

"Ooh. So you like him?" he asked, curious that a black dragon was capable to doing anything more than hate humans.

"Yes!" she hissed at him, embarrassed.

"Does he-?" he began to ask.

"No, he does know, but he said that he doesn't know abot his own feelings," she replied. She swiped her side hair over her ears. "So I'm just waiting for him to ... come around," she said.

"Well," Makarov said. "That was all I wanted to ask you. I'm happy that someone as powerful as yourself decided to stick with Ichigo."

She raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked him.

"Ichigo is very powerful. And thanks to you, who must have taught him the Black Dragon Slayer Magic, he has become more powerful than he had been. No, I haven't seen him before you two came along two months ago," he said when he saw her expression of curiosity for knowing something like that about Ichigo. "I just guessed it but your face says that I was right about that. But I'm just concerned, that's all," he said.

"Why?" she asked with a frown.

"...Fairy Tail, you see, is a guild founded by our first guildmaster Marvis. She wanted a guild that would give its members and others happiness. Perhaps more than happiness, but certainly happiness and family-like. But uncontrolled power, like my grandson Laxus, tends to bring about fracture into the guild. Ichigo still is. But with someone like you at his side, I have no doubt that you will be able to help him."

"Are you talking about what happened during the Phantom Lord invasion?" she asked him and he nodded gravely.

"I don't want anything bad to happen to this guild," he said. "Whether it comes from the inside or the outside."

She smirked. "You sound like a father."

"I am one."

She shrugged and turned around.

"Oh and 'Aconny'?" he called her. She stopped and looked over her shoulder friendly. "There is a -"

* * *

Ichigo, on the other hand, groaned as he coped with the changes in his inner world. He didn't know what was happening, but he didn't like it.

He was currently meditating -and thus within his inner world- and discussing the deteriorating world with Zangetsu and Shiro.

"Talk to me," he said as he watched one of the skyscrapers standing sideways give up and fall down.

"When that holy magic hit you, Ichigo, there was a side-effect within your body. First off, your decay magic attempted to counteract the holy magic, since they are the opposite poles of the Mana-dynamics," Zangetsu explained, having developed his own knowledge base from what Ichigo had learned and what he had seen himself. "And second, it triggered a dramatic change in personally."

"How?"

"You noticed that yourself already, Ichigo. You're not the old you. Well, when you first noticed it outside the town, it was a subtle change that you experienced. But now look. You've become more calculating, cold, strategic, and aloof than before. Not only that-"

Zangetsu stopped when Ichigo waved him. "I got it...

"Then how about the mana-reiatsu balance?"

"Not good. Reiatsu is threatening to overwhelm the mana you have, King. On top of that, your mana-reiatsu two way conversion is producing a third explosive power that slowly deteriorating this inner world. So either you scrape this one, go into coma for a half a year, and build a new one, or you can just wait it out to see what happens," he said.

"What third power?"

Zangetsu pulled out his hands and placed them in front of him as if he had a ball.

"It requires no incantation like kido or magic. It only requires imagination and power," he said as a ball appeared in his hands. Ichigo watched in amazement as that ball slowly morphed into a crescent moon. But unlike the black color that usually associated with his power, it was almost a transparent color with a hint of black but with a lot of green. "Fortunately, the more I use this power, the more it becomes stable around me. I suggest that you practice as well to stabilize it within our inner world."

Ichigo cocked his head.

"What to call it..."

"It looks vaguely like what the human organizations call ESP and PSI."

Ichigo groaned.

Reiatsu left him involved with the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo... and Urahara.

Urahara left him here.

And this place left him with magic.

Where would this ESP and PSI leave him?

'I don't wanna think about it,' he thought to himself.

* * *

"Well?"

Ichigo fiddled with the burst of pure mana Natsu managed to produce at Ichigo's request. Of course, they were doing this while training.

And Natsu, after producing it, was flat on the ground, eating dirt.

The size of the pure mana ball was about the size of a baseball with the concentration of mana slightly above 10 mana spheres per cubic centimeter.

Ah, this is part of mana-dynamics class.

Mana, like all things, takes up space and is affected by time, much like matter. As such, it also has density and concentration, like solid and liquid respectively. Density of a mana changes drastically, and as such, it is negligible to know about the formula that keeps the mana changing. The concentration, however, is a different issue. The concentration of mana spheres, the physical aspect of mana, is important. It affects how the magic works..and also how dangerous it is.

0.1 mana spheres (ms) per cubic centimeter is enough to produce a wooden puppet the size of a pinky. 1 mspcc is enough to hurt someone- or burn someone in Natsu's case. 10 mspcc is enough to bring down a Menos Grande with two shots.

"Nice, you've gotten better," Ichigo said.

"B-But it only rose by 2 points!" Natsu protested. "The progress is freakin' slow!"

"Quiet," Ichigo growled and he did. "Now, the conversion from mspcc to mana points, used by the Magic Council's Rune Knights," Ichigo said and everyone perked up.

"Natsu, you rose from 700 points at the beginning of our training to 1207 points. It is quite impressive," he said and Natsu got up from the ground, fell on his knees, and shouted "Hallejuah!"

"Cana, your turn," Ichigo said as he tossed the mana ball at Natsu, who ate it to restore his mana.

Cana gulped and pulled her hands together and shoved it in front of her. "Mana Ball: Max Out."

Slowly, magic from all parts of her body drained out of her and flowed into her hands that gradually separated apart to reveal a blue mana ball. Then just when it reached the size of a basketball, it stopped growing. Ichigo took the mana ball from her and weighed it on the counter with a machine he had managed to make for this purpose.

Everyone in the guild watched as Cana's mana ball was weighed.

There was an intense silence.

"..."

"Well?" Cana asked. She was also gasping after producing that ball.

"Not bad," Ichigo said as he handed her her mana ball back. "8.8829," he said.

She took the ball and groaned.

"Conversion... 1100." The guild cheered, congratulating her.

Cana shrugged, despite the fact that that was enough to make her a captain in the Rune Knights and more.

"Grey..." Ichigo said as he pushed his glasses up.

The said teenager gulped before he made his. It took less effort with Grey than the other two, since Ice Make Magic was already like the mana ball magic. He gave it to Ichigo.

Everyone watched in tense silence, the guildmaster and Erza Scarlet included, as Ichigo carefully set the mana ball down on the round device showing bars and graphs on its cylinder surface. The bars spiked then fell as did the line graph and just when it spiked again...

"10 points. Only 0.00001 % difference with Natsu's own," Ichigo said, impressed by the numbers.

Grey grinned and Natsu scowled.

"How about me?"

Ichigo and the rest of the guild turned to Erza. He raised an eyebrow. "Alright, let one of my disciples teach you," he said, waving her and the rest of the guild off.

The guild was quick to move. They were swarming the three mages into teaching them the mana ball magic so that they can have their magic weighed and accounted for.

Makarov was especially interested.

"That looks like it can be of use in wide-ranges," he said as he approached Ichigo while walking on the bar counter.

Ichigo shrugged. "I just made it for the sake of keeping track of my students' progress," he said.

"Why don't we try it?" Acnologia, who had been sitting next to Ichigo the whole time, asked.

Ichigo looked at her.

"Yeah, we want to see how strong you are," Natsu encouraged.

Ichigo sighed and produced a mana ball. Surprisingly, it wasn't black. Without hesitation, he set it on the counter.

"Come and have a look," Ichigo said as the bars and graphs spiked again and again, unable to keep themselves stabilized. Then it suddenly did on a spike.

Makarov leaned in.

"Unclassified? What does that mean?" he asked.

Ichigo leaned in. "Drats, the count stopped at 99 mspcc," he muttered, and the entire guild flipped. "I'm gonna need to fix that soon."

Makarov felt his throat clog.

10 mspcc gave one about 1200 points on Rune Knight's scale. What would anything over 99 mspcc be?

Acnologia made a mana ball herself and set it on the device after Ichigo did.

"8965," Ichigo read, and the guild paled, Makarov more than anyone else.

"Try me."

Ichigo turned to Erza, who was sweating, holding about a basketball sized mana ball. Ichigo grinned and took it. Then he set it on the counter after removing Acnologia's mana ball and waited for the result to come out.

Ichigo grinned, and the entire guild felt their heartbeat quicken.

"15 points. Your best single or instantaneous attack would be about 5000 points as of the moment."

Everyone gawked, then they burst into a cheer.

"Try mine," Makarov said.

The process went all over again...

And then there was the intense minute long silence...

"9999."

"Mana spheres or...?"

Ichigo looked at him and then everyone else.

"Rune Knight scale."

While everyone began to cheer how strong their master was, and with Erza thinking how far she still needed to go, Makarov was thinking about how strong 99 mspcc was...

'Wait, the count stopped _at_ 99. Then what is Ichigo's power. It can't be just 99...'

* * *

AoL

* * *

"We're going on a mission together," Grey said as he dragged a sleeping Natsu and drunken Cana, barging into Ichigo's apartment.

"Go," Ichigo, who had been brushing his teeth, mumbled. And as he watched the two walk out of the house, Acnologia woke up.

Well... Let's just say that she was usually naked when she slept.

"Hello, darling," she smiled with her eyes barely open.

He turned around and blushed, a trait that hadn't change at all.

"H-Hello," Ichigo said after cleaning his mouth with water.

"Are we gonna go anywhere?" she asked him as she got off and let her magic give her a fresh black set of leather pants, leather jacket, and hair tie.

He thought about it.

"We still have plenty of money from that time when I beat the shit out of the bandits," he said, remembering the day when he was drunk. "A mission is unnecessary," he added.

"But I'm bored... And I know you will be too."

* * *

AoL

* * *

Few Days later...

When Ichigo and Acnologia strolled into the guild, the guild was quiet, and they all looked at him and Acnologia.

"What?" he asked.

They gulped and turned to the job posts.

The couple went towards it and Ichigo grimaced at what he saw.

"Fuck, you got yourself a bounty, Acnologia... I did too," Ichigo muttered as he scratched his head. Immediately after he said it, he let his senses loose like a radar and found multiple groups coming towards Magnolia. One of them was familiar... "Rune Knights."

The guild still didn't talk to them.

"Anyone got suggestions?"

"Why don't you read the details of the bounty?" Makarov, who had been once more standing on the second floor, said.

The two did, and Ichigo whirled on Makarov. "Who?"

Makarov sweated. "Not me... But I'm sure it was one of the Phantom Lords."

Ichigo sighed and walked over to one of the tables.

The guild members still didn't talk to him.

"Great," he muttered as he took out Zangetsu. "I'm gonna release half of the seals."

As soon as he said it, the guild scrambled to get out of his way.

"Bankai."

* * *

It really didn't take that long when Ichigo went out full against everyone, save the Rune Knights, who he did not touch wisely.

"I won't let you take her," Ichigo said when confronted by Lahar, a division commander of the Rune Knights.

"You have no authority to block us, so move," Org, who have seen this man's profile before along with the rest of the Council, growled. He and the other Council members were with his division of Rune Knights as well.

Ichigo sighed. He slung Tensa Zangetsu over his shoulder. Then with his free hand, he curled his index finger multiple times, a motion reserved for bringing fights. "Bring it, old timer," he said.

All of the Council, save Shitou and Siegrain, got mad.

"You brat!" Org shouted and fired a very powerful looking magic attack at Ichigo.

Ichigo took it head on and dispelled it with a single stroke of his zanpakuto. "Too weak!" he said.

Org growled and, along with others, fired more attacks, and soon the Magic Council's members were fighting against Ichigo on a full-out battle.

This battle would later come to called Battle of Saints, or the Battle of Humiliated Saints.

* * *

But just as Ichigo was about to struck Shitou down, Makarov zoomed out of nowhere and blocked the blow, giving himself a very deep cut in the arms. Ichigo immediately backed off and yelled at Makarov. "What are you doing, Makarov?" he growled at the guild master.

"I won't let you kill anyone, Ichigo! You'll destroy the guild!"

Ichigo grimaced. "I won't let anyone take Acnologia. I'm the one who's protecting her," he said, though it sounded silly to everyone present. They all knew Acnologia was a black dragon.

"Really, and why does she need protecting when she's a black dragon?" Siegrain asked as he slowly stood up. "She'll kill us all if she stays here any longer!" he shouted.

"Kill? Hell no! Not when she's around me!"

"Ichigo ... just let her go with them-" Makarov

Ichigo grabbed Makarov by the collar and they glared at each other.

"I refuse to let that go," Ichigo growled at Makarov.

"I can't let you just break the law that governs Fiore, Ichigo. No matter how great the cause. If you succeed, then it will become a predecessor for all the bigots who believe that this country must be overthrown!" Makarov shouted back at him.

Natsu and Erza were still trying to get the two strongest member of the guild to back away from each other while Acnologia watched in worry as Ichigo went against a man he respected for her.

"You will not do anything to her. You will not take her away..." he hissed as his seal corroded from the anger bursting forth from within. Slowly, his spiritual pressure exerted out and began to crush everyone around them. Natsu and Erza, who were the closest to the two, began to buckle and slowly backed away. Even Makarov began to sweat, as did the Rune Knights forming a loose circle around the five Fairy Tail mages.

"I shall destroy you all if you try to even touch her..." he said as he slowly reverted his gaze from Makarov who he slowly released and to the Rune Knights. "There will be no quarter offered to anyone who comes to break her away from me..."

"Seal Magic: Quadda-Kas."

Suddenly, the pressure lifted from the area and Ichigo found himself struck down by multiple rods with runes scratched into them. They pinned him to the ground like some of the Bakudo spells did, but these were much more powerful than any he had felt. So he slowly turned his head towards the one who casted this spell on him, and much to his surprise, found himself staring at a hollow mask.

The man, the Masked Prophet, stared back at him. "It is no good for any Death God to lose control of his temper, Ichigo-sama," he said in reply to Ichigo's angry face, which turned into a surprised expression at the mention of 'death god.'

Even Makarov and Acnologia, the two closest if one excludes Ichigo's apprentices to Ichigo, felt their eyes widen. Of course, Rune Knights and some of the Council members were on the verge of a break down.

The Prophet dissipated the bindings.

"Why did you undo it?" Org questioned him angrily, horrified by what he saw.

"He was going to break it anyway," Prophet shrugged casually.

"...How do you know about the death god?" Ichigo asked.

The Prophet chuckled. "Well, you are, considering that you ferried many souls across to the 'underworld,'" he said, using his fingers to quote the last word. "You do deserve the name of Death God."

"Y-You are a God?" Acnologia asked, scared by the fact that she wanted a Death God.

Ichigo turned to Acnologia. "I -" he began but stopped himself.

"No matter," Prophet said. "Ichigo-sama. If you are so worried about her, then go with her. Don't let your anger loose and kill many around us," he said.

"You make it sound like you can withstand my attacks," Ichigo said.

"That I am not sure. But as a Vizard like yourself, I'm confident that I can take some hits," he replied.

Makarov helped Ichigo stand up. "Why didn't you tell us you were a God?"

"God in name only," Ichigo replied. "I'm powerful, but I deserve no such title from anyone," he added. "But I stand clear in what I did say. Try to touch her with your hands, and you can kiss them good-bye."

They gulped.

"Please," Makarov said. "I don't want anything drastic to happen, Ichigo-"

"Nor do I," the man interrupted.

"Just ... Just go with them, Ichigo," he said. "At least you'll know what they will be doing to her then," he added.

"...Fine," Ichigo muttered before he sealed his bankai and set his gigantic shikai upon his back. "Let's go."

Acnologia nodded numbly before Ichigo escorted her towards the Rune Knights.

* * *

"So that's what happened," Makarov said to Ichigo's two disciples and the rest of the guild after a day's rest.

Of course, they were in an uproar and were talking about declaring war until Makarov growled.

"Something like that won't happen," he said clearly. "Ichigo will take care of it."

* * *

And take care he did.

All around the carriage

"W-What kind of monster are you?" Shitou groaned as he tried to get up, but the merciless pressure on his back didn't lift, holding him down in place while Ichigo slowly walked over to Acnologia, who was trembling under the exerted pressure from Ichigo.

"Me? I'm not a monster. I'm a god," Ichigo hissed while the Prophet watched, amused. "And this _god_," Ichigo said, stressing the god, "Has a strict rule that he follows."

"And that is?" the Prophet asked.

"I break rules for my people," Ichigo declared with pride. "And when I was no stronger than any of you here, I did it multiple times. So I have a proposition for you: leave Fairy Tail, their friends and family, and this Acnologia, and I'll spare the Council and the kingdom. Oppose me, I'll have this world shattered into bits and take Fairy Tail to somewhere better."

There was a silence between the laying Council and this new 'god.'

"Do we have a deal?" Ichigo asked.

Org growled but he could not say those words. It would lead to all sorts of trouble if it got out-

"And I would say, if you accept this deal, that I got off with a little punishment along with Acnologia."

Dolma grinned. "Fine."

Immediately, the pressure lifted and breathing became easy.

Ichigo turned around with Acnologia in his arms, bridal-style. "Remember the deal and life will be good for you. Break it, hell will be your new home."

Then with that threat, he left the scene with a shunpo.

* * *

The Prophet, after watching Ichigo leave, waited until everyone was back up.

"So do you now realize how powerful he is?" he asked them and everyone including Ultear and Siegrain nodded. "At least be thankful that he's a gentle soul, one that only wants to protect. If he was belligerent, I hate to think how this world would look like right now."

"Why didn't you help us? You were pulled down by that pressure," Org said, a bit bruised and with dented pride.

"Why should i?"

Dolma grew angry and fired multiple missile-like magic.

All of which were parried and dissipated by a single swing.

"I may not be as powerful as he, but I am still powerful,_ humans_."

Everyone flinched.

The Prophet shrugged before he lifted his hood.

"Perhaps I should introduce myself now, now that the existence of gods have been somewhat ... proven. I am another death god, one that came from his world. I also knew him once, but he really doesn't like me and at the moment, doesn't know me," he said as he touched his hollow mask. "I am Kugo."


	10. Chapter 10

**Sorry for the late update. I am in an internet-slow area. So I apologize for the late update...**

**The first-half of the chapter is mostly dedicated to mana-dynamics, so it's a classroom time!**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

Ichigo stared at his disciples.

"You what?" he asked angrily. 'Deja Vu,' he thought, bemused.

The three late teen mages laughed nervously.

"You have no idea what mana-dynamics is?"

"W-Well, Dragoneel never taught me that kind of stuff. He taught me more like 'Kaboosh-!'" Ichigo punched him in the face before the fire dragon slayer could continue. Natsu reeled, holding his face with his hands, trying not to burst out in retaliation, which will only give him worse treatment than he just had. He knew that he should have watched out for it; Ichigo does not have a liking to onomatopoeia's.

"And you Gray?" Ichigo asked.

"My teacher did teach me but I forgot-"

Punch in the face.

"And you Cana?"

"Never had a teacher."

Ichigo, this time, just sighed. "...I guess it's class time," he said as he stood up from the rock that he had been seating on for the last three hours, watching his disciples spar. With a quick stretch of his arms and legs, he walked towards the guild and they followed him like little ducklings.

Unlike Ichigo, who was too busy walking, Acnologia, who had been watching from a nearby tree, chuckled as that picture entered her head... Except the ducklings were all different colors and they had human heads.

It was funny for her, though she didn't know if it would be for them.

She shrugged, not wanting to bother them, for she usually did and Ichigo did not appreciate it. So she looked about, trying to find something to play chase with.

She spotted a deer.

A tall alpha male deer.

"You seem like fun," Acnologia grinned and jumped towards it, propelling herself with her slim yet overpowered muscles.

* * *

**AoL**

* * *

Ichigo stood in front of a small class (which he converted in matter of seconds from an unused storage room) of chatty mages, and somehow, it was not just his disciples. There were others like Erza and Lucy that sat behind the three original ducklings. Ichigo looked over them and let out a anime-sweat. 'I feel so awkward right now,' he thought before extending his arm out and creating two light blue balls of mana.

"Mana," he began, and the background chatting died away as the mages gave him all their attention. "It is a very powerful presence in this world. Nature uses it for means that no researcher knows of yet, but it has been agreed upon that nature does use it. Magic comes in multiple parts. The mana particles and the raw energy that interacts between the particles. The study of the interaction between the mana particles, mana energy, and mages is mana-dynamics."

Erza raised her hand.

"Yes, Erza?" he asked on a first-name basis.

If she was embarrassed by it, she didn't show it, keeping her usual stoic face on her. "Just how in depth are you going to teaching us about it?"

"The dynamics?" Ichigo said and she nodded. He tilted his head to the side and the girls blushed thinking how cute it was.

Ichigo wanted them to know exactly how mana-dynamics worked; it was because of it that he understood the mechanics of this world as efficiently and quickly as he had. However, he did not want to overwhelm them with knowledge that they were losing time on their physical workout. But if they did not get significant amount, then they would do stupid things. He knew that they would do stupid things; it was matter of how they executed it.

"Considering that I still need my disciples to have their physical upkeep and training, I will not go too deep into it. I will teach it enough so that none of you will do something stupid," he said as he forced the mana balls to join each other. The ball grew twice its original size.

"Now," he began once more. "Can anyone explain to me how magic attacks occur?"

Lucy raised her hand.

"Yes, Lucy?"

"Mages convert the raw energy unconsciously into an aggressive and explosive form in offensive magic's case. In defensive and neutral, though, maigc takes a solid shape or a fluent movement that weaves through reality," she said, stating what she learned in her textbooks (from her millionaire home).

"Good reciting from the _Magic Instructions_ by Dan Nyvansky," he said with a smile, which shocked Lucy.

'How did he know that?'

"But that's all rubbish."

Everyone raised an eyebrow.

"And that is what Professor Ghun said in his book Advanced Studies on Mana Dynamics. Of course with contradiction in my face, I decided to do my own research," Ichigo said as he forced his mana ball to explode, causing the room to be brightly lit up by the invisibly held back mini nova. Everyone shielded their eyes.

"Now if attacks of equal content, energy, speed, and characteristic collide, what must happen? It's a simple logic," Ichigo said as the light slowly faded away, but not fast enough for the others' pain.

"They make that!" Natsu shouted, meaning the light.

"Other than the light, Natsu."

"They stop moving!"

"Precisely," Ichigo said as he put his hand over the tiny nova, keeping the blinding light within his hands. The others came to, they saw it, albeit with a bit of blindness. "And if all of their characteristics are the same, what must happen also?"

"One big explosion and an instant end to the attacks," Makarov, who had been interested in the subject and had been eavesdropping outside, said as he came in with few other mages.

"Correct," Ichigo said but unlike what Makarov said, the explosion with Ichigo's palm had yet to stop. And quite a time had passed. "But this has yet to disappear. This is the result of the first law of mana-dynamics. First Law states that when mana particles collide, they disintegrate into raw energy used primarily by mages to perform magic," Ichigo said, and the crowd before him nodded in understanding. "The Second Law of mana-dynamics states that when raw energy meets raw energy with the exact opposite force and vector, the energies will cancel each other out, but with mana particles, more energies will be produced than cancelled out, creating a chain reaction until the fuel (mana particles) cease to exist. And for all of you who have just heard this -excluding you guild master, there will be a test."

Everyone, excluding Natsu, was taking notes down, and then when Ichigo said 'test,' their heads jerked up.

"What?" Natsu asked, slightly taken aback.

"It will, of course, be written just for my sake of seeing you suffer," Ichigo added, clearly stating his intention. "And those of you who fail to get anything above a passing grade shall receive some ... 'training' from me. This is everything as the warning sign said on the door."

Everyone turned to the door, and saw something they hadn't seen before: a wooden panel that said the same thing Ichigo had just repeated after.

"Of course, for my students," Ichigo turned to the three in the front, taking out his glasses again. "The punishment as well as the reward shall be triple the amount that other mages in this room, excluding you Makarov since you certainly don't need to take the test, will receive."

Though punishment was horrible in all their mind (after seeing two of the toughest mages come to the guild haggard, they just had to imagine the worst), most of the mages' thoughts were on the reward that Ichigo spoke of.

"What reward?" Cana asked.

Ichigo smiled like a clown. "That's a secret, but do pick up the study packets that I made on your way out."

* * *

Now Ichigo had refused to give them at what time he was going to give their test, which left some nervous while others just a tad bit irritated.

Cana went off drinking (secretly, of course). Natsu went home and slept. Gray went to the library and actually began to study. Erza was studying as well, but unlike Gray who did not understand much once he did not have Ichigo's verbal explanation, she was quite enjoying the mana-dynamics work. It was so interesting to her. For example, the Second Law of mana-dynamics explained why her magic, which only uses mana in more refined form, often breaks and she loses control under certain conditions such as mana particle-dense atmospheres and dungeons. She didn't know what they meant or exactly how they worked, but she understood now, and that helped her with her understanding.

'Under such circumstances, I must use melee,' she thought as she read through a more in-depth research on mana-dynamics that was recommended for those who understood it (as it was said in the paper). It was on about the side-effect of fighting in any low or high mana particle areas. Some common effets were-

"Hey Erza," Mirajane said as she approached the S-rank mage.

Erza looked up at the former S-rank and smiled. "Hi, Mira. What're you doing?" she asked the white haired girl.

Mira's smile faltered a bit before she produced a similar packet to what Erza held in her hand.

"I never thought that I had to study after joining a guild," she said as she sat down next to Erza.

"Neither did I, but we all know how Ichigo would take to that."

"True. But this packet is very interesting, nevertheless."

"Hmm."

Erza, for a moment, set the paper down and sighed. A sudden burst of reading after not reading for a long time -about four months- strained her eyes, but she enjoyed it. With a smile, she slowly held the packet up again-

"Natsu?" she muttered.

Only ten yards from where Erza was, Natsu stood, crouched actually, with a heavily packed luggage on his back. He was staring at the job board, and after a quick look, grabbed one of the offers and ran out of the guild.

Erza, after a blank stare, smirked.

She quickly put the packet down, changed her casual clothes into her armor and ran after Natsu.

Yes, it was interesting, but it was still hard.

* * *

Not too far from the guild building -or what is being built of it- was Ichigo and Acnologia eating in a forest, enjoying a nice 'picnic.'

Ichigo felt Natsu and Erza's life presences slowly drift further away from him and the guild.

"Eh, I was expecting it."

Acnologia, who had been on top of a tree with her legs swinging down, looked down at him with a giant cooked leg of some sort of animal. She jumped down from the tree branch.

"What?"

"I was expecting more than half of the students to ditch the test, even though they had only returned from a job less than three days ago," Ichigo repeated. And it had been true. Day one was when Grey had dragged Natsu and Lucy and left. They also came back on the same day. And only two days had passed since then.

"Oh."

Nom.

Nom.

Nom. Nom. Nom.

"Why don't we go on one then?" she asked him after she tossed the bone away, specifically to a pile of bones.

"One what?"

"Mission. I'm sure you're okay with going on one, right?"

"...I guess then," he shrugged.

"Where should we go?" he asked after some time.

Acnologia grinned and pulled out a piece of job offer that she had pulled down from the job board few hours ago.

"A mission to find Jellal Fernandas, one rumored to be the leader of a dark guild building a Tower of Heaven."

Ichigo's eyes widened at the mention of Tower of Heaven, for it was a forbidden magic.

"Does it give the general location of the Tower?"

"Yes."

"Let's go then. But of course, we'll walk."

"Eh? Why?"

"Because I want to," Ichigo said as he slung a thick-skinned bag over his shoulder. "Besides, if we walk, we can easily find more things to eat to keep our vast powers up."

"...Good point," Acnologia replied as she quickly jumped next to Ichigo and wrapped her arms around his. "Let's go... For an adventure!"

Ichigo was reminded of Pokemon that moment.

"You're cheerful today."

Acnologia just bit him on the shoulder, playfully, and he chuckled. With a few more playful words exchanged, they began to walk.

* * *

Ginjo, who had revealed his true identity to Ichigo, sighed as he stared out of the cathedral-like open window to his right while Siegrain and Ultear sat around in a circle, once more, with the Magic Council around their meeting table to his left.

"...That concludes the discussion on the regulation of the prices of lacrima crystals to be sold on the market," Dolma said as he and the other set aside a blue folder to the side and drew a white folder with the word "classified" across it. "Then now, let us move unto the matter of this 'god' of Fairy Tail."

It was at that moment that Ginjo decided to come over to the Council.

He made no comment about it; he just watched.

"...Can you tell us about this man, Prophet?" Yajima asked. Though he did not want to corner Fairy Tail, for he was its guildmaster's long-time friend, this new mage presented a threat to the balance of world power.

Gods, or seemingly immortal beings with extraordinary power beyond the comprehension of most scholars, came and went throughout the history of Earthland. Some were killed, some still lived, and others disappeared. But their presence in history often changed the course of the said subject in ways too numerous.

The fifth Fire God Janna Tribanas, who lived during the era of Zeref, was very fierce follower of the order of Revanas, who believed that all nations must be united under a single flag, though the flag itself was not the issue but the would-be-fact that the continent will be under a single flag's rule. He was a mage who had achieved a sort of immortality, though the side-effect turned him into a burning piece of fire. During the Zeref's reign, he went around and struck down Zeref's enemies, since he believed that Zeref was the one who was going to unite the land. Of course when Zeref disappeared, presumed to be dead, he went and killed an entire network of city, some in Fiore. He was eventually put down at the cost of ten thousand warriors and mages.

"Well, like I said before. He's stronger than anyone in this world right now. If he unleashes his full power, then no one can approach him without being disintegrated into fine particles of dust," Ginjo said and shrugged. "Good thing is that he is very obedient to law as long as the law itself is not unethical or immoral." He paused and then looked over the entire council in a slow sweep. "Or just plain stupid."

Few of the council members clenched their jaws and fists but dared not retort.

"I'm guessing that if we keep our hands off of them, then he won't do anything hasty. Am I right, Prohpet?" Yajima asked from his seat.

"That's correct. I should know."

The tension in the room lifted for a second as the council members became curious of what Ginjo meant by 'I should know.'

"But he's keeping his powers in check because he's not some lunatic. He believes in the phrase 'With great power comes great responsibility.' Most of the responsibility in his case would be to stop anything overly stupid like a war over pride and to keep people from dying just by approaching him. So all in all, you got nothing to worry about. Hell, you can even arrest one of the Fairy Tail if one of them goes too much out of control, though I think Ichigo will see it to that before any of you gets around to do arresting or even anything close to trouble."

And how he was wrong.

Ichigo was not there to exactly ...put them down. In fact, Ichigo was helping Natsu, Gray, Luvia, Lucy, Erza, and few others who had infilterated and devastate the Tower of Heaven, where Jellal was.

"Umm... Guys?" Siegrain began, slightly out of his usual gentlemen character after he picked up a folder. "A Tower of Heaven is being built..."

There was another silence.

"WHAT? The remnants of the R-system is being rebuilt?"

"It's not R-system. It's the Tower of Heaven," Siegrain said seriously, but his seriousness did not originate from the gravity of the situation but the fact that he, his true body in the Tower of Heaven, was watching Ichigo plow through his men.

"Yes, that was the other name..."

"Look, the name doesn't matter-" Org began.

"What is the R-system?" Ginjo asked, playing the uninformed man he was supposed to be under Siegrain.

Everyone in the council turned to Ginjo with a serious face.

Ultear turned to Ginjo, though she, Siegrain and Ginjo were all privy to the information already. "...It's a magic that resurrects someone at the cost of the lives of others, putting them under a grievous toll that cannot be described. The R-system is actually something that a dark guild put up to revive Zeref, the greatest dark mage..."

"We must mobilize an army right this instant and put it to an halt!" Org shouted.

"No, it'll be too late for the army then. If the site for the R-system is still the same, then the place is isolated. Not only that, we have to cross a vast body of water. By the time we get an army mobilized, they'll see it coming and will activate the system," Reji sighed under his hood and glasses. "This is a nightmare."

"Then we must use the Etherion," Siegrain said as he stood up.

The Council shouted in unison. "What? Are you nuts?"

* * *

Ichigo groaned. He had come to this "Tower of Heaven" and had immediately realized that something was wrong.

Yes, he used shunpo over the water and Acnologia flew over it with a wind magic as a support since Ichigo was too fast for her. Even with the wind magic support, she ended up arriving an hour later than Ichigo did. By the time she arrived, Ichigo was already wrecking havoc to the Tower.

"Damn you, Ichigo!" she shouted at the top of the tower. "Leave some for me! Don't have all the fun by yourself!"

While Acnologia was at the bottom of the Tower, Ichigo found himself staring right into the hooded man known as Jellal.

"I have to capture you," Ichigo said, clearly stating his intention.

"I see that," Jellal replied. "But it seems that you've come too late."

Ichigo shook his head. "It's not too late. You're still here, aren't you?"

"Oh. You're job was to capture me, not stop me?" the man asked as he lifted his hood, surprising Ichigo mildly with his facial appearance.

Ichigo remembered seeing him on the Council, or at least with the Council. So he had guessed that he was with the council, but the fact that this Jellal was his target meant that he wasn't.

"I agree that we must use the Etherion. It is our only chance to put a stop to Jellal," Ultear asked, casting her vote.

"Ultear! Have you gone mad too?"

"No, I have not. But unless you have another way to stop Jellal immediately before he manages to activate the R-system, then I suggest you support Siegrain as well," Ultear replied tactfully. 'But he's going to fail anyway,' she added mentally as she looked over the council. She turned her eyes to Siegrain and gave him a reaffirming nod.

Of course, his method was not going to work. After all, Zeref was never dead to begin with. He was somewhere out there in the world, sleeping in his immortal body. Just waiting for someone to come and wake him up so that he may run rampant in this world once more. R-system was actually a ruse for her master's true plan for Zeref. She was smart enough to mesmerize Jellal with her illusions. This was, of course, under orders from Master Hades to create a distraction for the true work of awakening Zeref. But she was here to see to it that this "attempt" would see through. See through until the very last part.

"...Then..." Reni muttered as he too raised his hand.

Org looked at the mage in shock.

Dolma, the head of the Magic Council, raised his hand. "It must be done."

"Head!" Org shouted. "Think about this!"

"I have. I would rather have an army go and annihilate this son-of-a-bitch, but we can't because of all the political consequences that would engender. No, it is easier to use Etherion so that it leaves no trace behind of whatever we do."

Org was shaking in anger and despair. Was this it? Was this the extent of pressure the Magic Council could take?

But then again, this was the R-system. R-system made to resurrect Zeref as far as he knew.

"Fine," Org said as he raised his hand as well.

Others soon followed. Yajima was the last though. "Let me remind you that there are mages trying to stop that thing right now in this instant..." he said as he raised his hand as well.

"Then it is decided," Siegrain said. "We shall use Etherion to stop the Tower of Heaven."

Natsu was having trouble with a rather "Ho-Ho"ing owl head. An owl head with a jetpack attached to his back. It was the most disturbing and peculiar sight.

"Oi, let me pass!" Natsu growled as he attacked about.

"Ho ho! You got a very interesting magic there! Maybe I'll swallow it up!" the owl said.

The ceiling, however, decided to collapse when the two were about to duke it out and bunch of bricks fell down.

Along with a certain orange haired young man.

"W-What the hell!" Natsu screamed, not because the ceiling collapsed, but because it was Ichigo collapsing with it. The strongest man he ever knew -well maybe, with the exception to Gildarts- was collapsing down. "Ichigo!"

Ichigo, on the other hand, was unharmed, calm, and rather surprised. "Oh, so you can do something that strong?" Ichigo asked after being hit by Meteour.

Jellal, who was at the top of the tower, looked down the hole that his magic Meteour and Ichigo made with an incredulous expression. "How the hell are you still alive?" he shouted down the hole. Unlike Ichigo, he had multiple cuts, some of which looked fatal, and burns all along his arms and legs.

Ichigo heard the shout directed at him and smirked. "Because I'm stronger than you!" he shouted back at the dark mage. He landed safely on the floor where Natsu was about to engage the owl head. Then with a sudden screeching halt to all of his movement, he pumped raw power -no magic or reiatsu, just raw energy- into his legs and shot back up, leaving Natsu and the owl head looking at him with wide, oogling eyes of mixed envy and awe.

Ichigo was back up, but when he was, Ichigo saw Erza there as well.

Along with the blue haired twin council member.

"Oh."


	11. Chapter 11

**The previous chapter. Read it if you haven't. This is chapter 11. I replaced chapter 9 sneak peak with chapter 10.**

* * *

Chapter 11

As soon as their eyes met, Ichigo realized what was going on between them. Well, not too deeply, but enough for him to understand that they had a history before. But personal thoughts could wait after he bound Jellal in rope and sealed his magic-using ability until he turned him in.

Ichigo shot forth and began to pummel Jellal again.

"No, you can't do this to me!" Jellal roared as Ichigo showed him hell with his punches alone.

Erza watched in amazement as Ichigo took down someone from the Ten Wizard Saints. She knew that Ichigo was insanely strong, but this was ridiculous. She fought him, but she was only a lower-tier S-rank mage. She was close but nowhere near the rank of the Ten Wizard Saints. She still had a lot of training to do, which meant that without some miracle, fighting Jellal by herself was a suicide run.

'But ... Ichigo is beating Jellal up without sweating a drop,' she thought as she saw the man's arms and sword move at a pace faster than she could muster. It was like watching light pierce through the darkness, and with each beam, the darkness roars and fights back in vain.

"But it's too late!" Jellal shouted when he got a pause. "I already had permission to fire Etherion! And when that happens, all I need to do is -!" Another punch. Jellal flew away like ragdoll.

* * *

"Fire Etherion."

* * *

There was a bright light open up in the sky, and everyone's attention flew to it.

"It's over for you!" Jellal grinned as the square magic runes opened up high above them.

Ichigo cursed. Yes, that attack that was about to come down at the Tower and all of those within had a hell lot of power. Ichigo could just feel it. The refined yet insanely powerful concentrated of mana particles and energies. It was a ticking bomb, just waiting to rain down on a helpless target. And that target happened to be him and everyone within. He looked back down at Jellal. "You're nuts, you know that?" Ichigo asked.

"I went mad a long time ago!"

Then the magic attack fired directly at them, and everything went white.

Erza gasped as the attack fell down. She didn't expect her life to end this way, but … she was okay with it. At least she died with Jellal.

* * *

Acnologia was not so sure about dying. Yes, she was also caught up within the attack, but she was infinitely more experienced with magic than any of the humans on this tower.

She felt the energy of the attack slowly just pass by her. It was like any other attack that she took from a human mage or warrior; they just bounced off. However, the cause of the refraction of the attack was something within the tower, not her scales. She doubted that her scales would stand up to the force of the attack.

Then … her vision returned to normal.

Nothing.

"So that's what it was," she whispered as her vision came back not to the pale bricks but the blue lacryma. She didn't feel the hidden structure's presence before, but now with magic literally glowing within it, it was easy to feel it. However, that messed up her "radar" for magic.

* * *

Natsu looked about. He had defeated the owl head moments before the entire structure was struck by something white. His vision had been taken away for a moment before it returned to him.

He screamed his head off when he found the blue lacryma that had replaced the tower. It was enough shock for most of the Fairy Tail mages and others who survived the onslaught of their enemies and the Etherion, and they screamed as well.

* * *

Ichigo blocked his ear, lest they bleed and fall off of him from the crescendoing screams.

Jellal and Erza was doing the same.

"...This is weird," Ichigo muttered.

Erza nodded.

Jellal removed his fingers from his ears and quickly made a magic seal in front of him. It was too quick for even Ichigo to intercept and it caught the two Fairy Tail mages off guard.

It was Abyss Break.

Erza's eyes widened. "Jellal! Are you trying to kill everyone on this tower?" she hissed as she took her hand off of her ears and pulled out her swords.

Jellal smirked. "I already realized that I can't win against that monster of a friend of yours without it," he said as Siegrain appeared. Without words due to the necessary quickness required on his part to perform Abyss Break, they merged.

'Illusion!'

* * *

"H-He disappeared!" Yajima, who had been stalking Siegrain for the purpose of finding out exactly what Siegrain was doing, shouted when Siegrain disappeared like some sort of mirage right before his eyes. "He betrayed us!" he shouted.

"What?" Org growled. "Who?"

"Siegrain! You can see him on the screen!"

Everyone turned to the screen where the mages were spying upon the Tower of Heaven starting from the moment when Etherion struck. And Siegrain, or rather Jellal, was there.

With Abyss Break.

All of a sudden, the screen shut off and dust began to fall off of the ceiling of the Magic Council's supposedly grand structure. Then the ceiling began to collapse and the floor began to rot, despite the fact that both were made out of bricks.

"W-What's going on?" Org shouted. '...Wait, this is -!'

"Yes," Ultear said as she raised her hand. "This is what my Master wants."

"Damn you, Ultear! You were with Siegrain?" Yajima shouted.

"From the start..."

* * *

Ichigo realized how powerful the spell was, and how everyone aside from him would die if the spell was fired. Even he would not get away unharmed. He could stop Jellal, but the magic seal had already began to count down on the countdown sequence until fire.

Which was exactly 5 seconds.

Unable to think of anything else, Ichigo launched himself towards the Abyss Break. Jellal saw Ichigo coming and fired multiple Meteors in an attempt to stop the charging mage. But Ichigo was faster and he reached Jella, placing the magic seal of Abyss Break right between him and the caster. "Seal Grab!" Ichigo shouted, remembering one of the spells from a particular magic book. A magic seal of blue appeared for a split second around Ichigo's free left hand. He used it to grab the Abyss Break's seal.

2 seconds.

Unable to throw the seal, Ichigo used shunpo, dragging it and himself to the sky. When he came out of his first shunpo -at the height of ten kilometers above the sea level- he forced the seal to flip 180 degrees, directing it towards the sky.

0 seconds.

From the tower, one could see a very black streak of ominous light erupt seemingly out of nowhere. But Natsu -who had just arrived out from within the lacryma's structure just before Ichigo disappeared- and Erza knew what had happened.

* * *

"Damn you!" Natsu roared as he charged towards Jellal, who took the fight with a smirk.

Ichigo hissed as the Abyss Break fired off its attack and his skin began to burn. It was a strong magic, one that was on par with Yamamoto's shikai.

There was noway to escape this. The vector of the attack was too strong. If he let himself go with the flow, then the attack would take a huge toll, but he can't slide out of the attack; the vector was too strong, and it would obliterate any passive (hierro) and active (multiple magic barrier layers) defense he had up because of the change and the added current's pressure.

Overall, at this rate, he was literally going to be hurt bad. Like really bad burns along his arms. Or thrown into space. The latter was most likely outcome at how fast he was being pushed back with his defenses in place.

* * *

And he had already released all of his power moments before Abyss Break fired.

While his body was dealing with the magic attack, his consciousness was dealing with how to stop this without creating a huge distortion in the fabric of reality. Though Abyss Break was powerful, it was not as powerful as Aizen's Kurohitsugi had been in the said man's hogyoku-fused form. It was close though. Close enough to tear a rip in the fabric of reality.

* * *

'Maybe I can go back home with it...' he thought as he slowly shifted his body around, exposing the full power of Abyss Break unto his back.

"Gah!" he shouted in pain before he shut himself off.

This was the plan.

He was going to fire off a seriously charged up Getsuga Tensho at the same speed of the Abyss Break attack. If the Getsuga Tensho was strong enough, then a tear will form in the fabric and he will be able to go through it to escape. However, if he fails to make a tear, then the full force of Abyss Break will tear him apart. Not literally, but it would hurt like hell and he would be rendered defenseless.

* * *

"Getsuga..." he hissed as the spiritual attack black as Abyss Break formed around his black zanpakuto. "Tensho!"

Below where Abyss Break fired off -WAY below- and on the top floor of the Tower of Heaven, Natsu roared as he struck Jellal.

Jellal took the hit and flew off before he used his magic Meteor to make a counter right back at Natsu. Natsu, without nawn sort of aerial support, flew backward and struck one of the pillars. Jellal grinned. He may have been weakened by that bastard black robed mage from another world, but he was still strong enough to take down a mage of Natsu's level. He smirked when Natsu trembled, trying to stand back up. He walked over to him and raised his right leg.

"Just die already!" Jellal roared as he stomped down on Natsu's head. Natsu's head cracked on the crystal floor and blood splattered out. Erza gasped, but she was too weak to move. Tears were running down her eyes and her hands were covering her trembling mouth. Jellal smirked and walked away, speaking things like how Erza was going to become the sacrifice now and that Natsu was too weak.

But that was when Natsu slowly raised himself back up.

With Etherion-rich lacryma in his mouth.

* * *

The two S-class mages gawked at him. "W-What? That's a suicide!" Jellal shouted, actually worried a bit for the fire mage's mental stability. Or was he dumb?

Ichigo grinned as his Getsuga Tensho flew out at the necessary speed. And then...

* * *

As he wanted, a rip in the fabric of reality appeared. 'And that's my escape route!' he thought before he jumped into it.

When Ichigo made that rip, Jellal, being the most sensitive of the closest three mages, whirled around as to look for it, and he found himself drawn to the pillar of black light that is his Abyss Break. All his magics were specials. They lasted much longer than anyone else's, which was why he was able to quickly rise up to the ranks of Ten Wizard Saints. However, when he felt that rip occur, his face blenched.

'H-He made a rip in the fabric of space itself to escape my Abyss Break..? Just what kind of monster is he-?'

"Jellal!"

Jellal whirled around and saw Natsu... with a huge dragon made out of flame behind him.

"You're dead!"

* * *

When Ichigo turned around to exit the rip once he escaped the damn magic attack, his eyes widened as he saw no such rip. Instead, he saw a very clear blue sky with a few clouds dotting the horizon. The trees below him took all shades of green, brown, and red, and the cries of monsters were very much like those of hollow's, only without the double echo.

He was in a completely different place from where he expected himself to be.

"Fuck!" he roared as he realized that he was lost. "FUCK FUCK FUCK!"

* * *

**AoL**

* * *

Two months later...

Acnologia stood at the entrance of the guild and sighed. Ever since he was labeled as a MIA during the Tower of Heaven fight, she haven't seen him. Not even once.

"Ah-chan."

The tall lady turned around and she saw Wendy pulling on her shirt. Wendy was the only person that she allowed herself to be called 'Ah-chan' from. She smiled and knelt down, placing her hand on Wendy's hand after kneeling. "Hello, Wendy-chan," she greeted softly.

"It's already night. Come in," she said. Though Wendy joined the guild far after Ichigo's disappearance, she was aware of Acnologia and her lover. She was told that Acnologia was constantly standing there, waiting for Ichigo to come back. Of course, Wendy had not seen him even once, but she was sure that Ichigo was a man that knew how to slowly thaw something hard and rough as hatred. At least just by being himself.

Acnologia smiled. "Sorry, Wendy-chan. I'll be standing here throughout tonight as well. You go inside," Acnologia said before she stood back up. Wendy put up her best puppy eyes, but the taller lady only just smiled and turned around.

Wendy, having failed at her quest, turned around and turned around. She went in, leaving Acnologia all alone once more.

*Whoooo...* Acnologia sighed. It was a hard for her, especially after Ichigo disappeared. The Rune Knights and the damned Magic Council has been snooping their noses in Fairy Tail's buisness. Other guilds were looking down on them. Above all, though, there were assassin after her. "Where are you, you bastard...?" She just sighed again after. "Imma take a walk," she muttered to herself before she put power to her legs and jumped high into the air, flying like a dragon she was. Or … jumping. With that single jump, she cleared half of the town, and landed on the cobblestone street. She landed with a cat-like grace, and with a succession of the same jump, she cleared the entire town. Ever since Ichigo went missing, she was training herself; one such training was the jumping skill she so chreished now. IT was very useful, and cut time where her wings could not.

So she was now at the edge of the town.

"Oh, it's you."

She looked about, and found someone she was somewhat familiar with.

"Yo, Mystogan."

"...Acnologia."

"Yes?" she asked nonchalantly. Her name used to strike fear in the hearts of all men and women, but now for the Fairy Tail mages, it was just another name.

"I need your help..."

* * *

"...Eh?"

"Oh," she muttered a minutes after she uttered 'eh.' In that minute, Mystogan had revealed who he was -Edolas's Jellal-, what he had been doing, and what was going to happen. About anima. About Edolas. About the event.

"Then what are you waiting for?" she hissed as she grabbed the collapsing man, and ..jumped.

They flew across the entire town to the gates of the guild itself.

'Holy shit, she's jumpy!' E. Jellal thought in shock as he and Acnologia flew across the town. Then they landed... without a scratch.

"Hurry it up! I won't have them all-!"

"Too late..." E. Jellal said as his form began to dissipate into gas. Acnologia's eyes widened in shock. Human turned into gas? She then whirled around. It was true as he said, the entire town was being vaporized and then sucked up into the sky.

"Shit!"

"Don't worry. You'll have the dragonslayers to help you," E. Jellal muttered just before he disappeared as a whole.

"Damn it!" she hissed. She was once again powerless to stop this.

"Ah-chan!"

She turned around just as the town finished .. disappearing. It was Wendy, the Wind Dragonslayer. "Wendy-chan!"

"W-What's happening?"

Before he could tell her, the ground cracked up and a hand shot out from a place that the guild's building used to be.

It was Natsu.

"W-What just happened?"

Acnologia helped Natsu out of the ground and she explained what Mystogan told her … until Charlie interrupted.

"This happened because of us two," Charlie said.

"...Eh?" Happy muttered. "W-What?"

"It's true..."

Charlie explained her side of the story. How she and Happy were sent here to capture the Dragonslayers because they were going to invade the Edolas. Of course, Natsu was the most vocal of the objections. Charlie ignored the fire dragonslayer and went on about how she was sent along with other Exceeds to kill the dragonslayers. Lure them into Edolas if possible. Wendy refused to believe, while Happy just trembled... And his stomach grumbled. Natsu didn't believe it as well. He trusted in Happy and Happy did not recollect anything like what Charlie recalled. Charlie accused him. Happy just … looked down by the accusation.

"Well then, let's go," Natsu said.

"You … still want to go even when you know that we were -."

"Ya ya ya. I don't care. We still have to go save our friends."

"... Alright," Charlie said. "But if we show any sign of betraying you two, eliminate us."

The other three stared at her. Happy's stomach then proceeded to growl, pissing Charlie off. "Will you do something about that stomach?"

"I can't!"

GGGRRRROOOOWWWWLLL.

"Excuse me..."

The four whirled around, expecting an enemy. Instead, they found a man in a cloak. He was familiar, especially to Natsu.

"...You!" Natsu recognized the man after a while.

It was Ginjo, or better know on Earthland as the Prophet.

"Weren't you in league with that bastard Gerard?" Natsu asked. HE was obviously pissed about someone like Ginjo coming here.

Ginjo shrugged his shoulders. "I was never serving nor in league with him. He came to me for advice, and I gave them. Well, that and a few facts about the future from some random tome that I found when I arrived in this world..."

Natsu didn't get it. The rest of the group did not get it as well. Hack, they all didn't know the man!

"Umm... Excuse me, but who are you?" Wendy asked.

"I am Ginjo. I was a former enemy of Kurosaki and a former advisor of Jellal's," he replied kindly, ending it with a bow. "Pleased to meet you."

"What are you here for?" Charlie asked.

"I'm here to help you. I want to speak to Ichigo, after all."

"You speak as if that man is alive," Acnologia growled. She hadn't been in the conversation, though she had listened to them all. Now that Ginjo was here, her attention was back on him.

Ginjo looked at Acnologia.

"Ah, the famous dragon of apocalypse. It is an honor ... of sort to meet you like this without having Ichigo between us. May I say-."

"Cut the crap. You talk as if Ichigo is alive. Now tell me why you do before I decide to break off a bone or two," she hissed.

Ginjo reeled a bit. Acnologia was on par with him on strength alone, trying to fight her would result in a catastrophic … loss of time to be spent on both healing and recuperating, and such a loss of time was not an ideal thought for a situation such as this. "When Fairy Tail struck at the Tower of Heaven, I was watching over the scene with a certain survelliance magic, one that I will not be revealing because it is one that I specifically made for my own use."

"You made your own magic?" Wendy asked, shocked by the news.

Magic that everyone used was at one point created far in the past by a group. Only few magic were made by individuals, and they tended to have more flaw. It was like a myth or a story. One that existed for a longer period of time tend to be more wide spread and have more influence. 'For example,' Ginjo thought. 'On Earth, not Earthland, the movie Thor originates from the Norse god Thor, god of Thunder and Smithery, but not all knows about that manhaw God of Highschool. Ah, I wonder what chapter they are on now...'

"Yes, I did. Several of them, in fact," he replied. "But that is beside the point. Through my magic, I saw that Ichigo disappeared through a gap in the fabric of space that he himself tore open using the power of both Abyss Break and his Gentsuga Tensho. That was, however, almost a ifferent version of Anima with the same gap frequency-" And Ginjo talked on.

Most of the details were nonsesnse to Acnologia. She cared for no frequency of magic and the effects of it. Magic was instinct to her. She used magic by it and that was that.

"- That and-!"

"Shut up!"

Everyone did and turned to Acnologia, who looked very pissed off. "Save the explanations for later. If Ichigo is alive, I want to go find him, _now_."

Ginjo felt cold sweat fall off. "Of course. The way is easy for us though, unlike Ichigo. All we have to do is … simplify fly up." He then pointed to the swirling Anima. "But I'm not going to lie. It's going to hurt. A lot."

"Alright then," Acnologia grinned as she let her wings sprout out of her back. It looked like a painful process, though her face suggested otherwise. The wings opened up out of her skin and convulsed on a three second interval. Then the wing reached its widest span and she took to the air.

Happy got on Natsu, sprouted his own wings, and they were off as well.

Wendy looked at Ginjo after those three took off. "How are you going to fly up?" she asked as Charlie attached herself to her back and sprouted her wings.

Ginjo smiled. "I have my own ways, girl. Off you go," he replied.

They took off.

Then when Wendy went through, Ginjo began jumping up with the Fullbring light behind him.

Acnologia was waiting for them on the other side. Natsu and Happy came out first, followed by Wendy, and then Ginjo with purple light under his feet.

"Alright. We got the entire squad here," Ginjo said as he approached them. "I'll take the lead in finding Ichigo. You coming, Acnologia?"

Acnologia looked dissatisfied but nodded anyway.

"We'll go find our guild members," Natsu replied. "Well-. Woah! What the hell are those?"

The 'squad' turned around and their jaws dropped. A river was in the sky with fishes swimming within it.

"...The fuck?" Acnologia muttered.

"Keh. That's an interesting river. Is everything in Edolas like this?" Ginjo asked.

"I-I don't know. I was never given any sort of information on Edolas, only about Earthland and dragonslayers. Even this is … new to me," Charlie replied. "I think-."

Suddenly, everyone's wings disappeared. For a second, they stood in midair. Then they fell.

"WAAAHHH!"

"KKYYAAHH!"

"... This is crazy."

"AHHH!"

Ginjo just looked at them fall and hit the ground from where he first stood. "Well, that was weird."

"You bastard!" Natsu shouted at Ginjo, who merely gave him the "hand of awkward 'hi's'."

"We can't use magic like you did in Earthland. I already told you this," Charlie said as she dusted herself off. She then looked around, and found herself at the top of the pile of people with Wendy below her, Happy squashed between Natsu and Acnologia. "Hmm." Then she got off the pile. Then she looked up and saw Ginjo slowly descend down towards them. "Let's get moving."

"Easy for you to say..." Acnologia growled from the very beneath of the pile. "Now, get off!"


	12. Chapter 12

_Many thanks to you reviewers. Any kind of review (as long as they have some heart in them) encourage me to do better... or worse. _

_Yes, the last chapter was ... bit of a eh... ew? I'll try to make it up with this chapter, so please do forgive me._

_Also I changed the name of Charlie, the white girl Exceed that Wendy has as her friend/partner, to Carla, since that is the name on the wikia. If you object to this, then just put Charlie at the end of your review or Carla, if you don't mind, at the end of review._

**-AoL**

Chapter 12

"How long have we been walking?" Natsu asked.

Carla turned around from the head of the group. "We only walked for half an hour. And at a very slow pace, might I add," she replied. She then turned back to the front and began walking again, but she halted only after a few steps.

"What?" Acnologia asked, confused by the Exceed's actions.

"There's a storage of some kind up ahead," Carla said. "I suggest someone go scout it out."

Ginjo stepped forward. "I will." He quickly made his way over to the storage, which was about a hundred meters away, and peered inside. He went around the building, surverying each site before he went inside. The others held their breath. Anticipation was building up within their minds as to why Ginjo went through the length of going around, noting every detail, and then going in. But whatever thoughts they had were quickly dispersed when the said man came out unharmed and mentioned for them to come in.

The two Exceeds, two humans, and the dragon ran across what little forest and clearing that was between the storage and them, and rushed inside. Ginjo closed the door.

"You were right, Carla. This place is a storage. Look at all of these clothes," Wendy said as she made her way about.

"Ha! Look at all of the funny clothes!" Natsu roared off, digging through the clothes and the accessories.

"Maybe these are what the inhabitants of Edolas wear, which means," Acnologia said as she held up a hat with a lot of long feathers attached to it. "We should all put these on for disguise."

"...That's a god idea," Ginjo said as he removed his cloak.

Wendy was blushing as she held unto a shirt. "Please don't look this way..." she muttered, but everyone was too busy with their own disguise making that they did not hear her, or even turn to her. Satisfied of the lack of attention on her, though slightly irritated by the same fact, she began to change.

Acnologia was the first to be done with hers. Before, she wore a black leather jacket and pair of black leather pants, a change from the single black one piece she always wore around Ichigo. Now, she wore a plain red on black one piece that started just above her chest and ended just above her knee. It was made out of a fabric that was both flexible and tight.

Ginjo, on the other hand, got himself a suit of thick armor and carried a sword with a skull embedded at the center of its hilt.

Natsu wore a black jacket over his usual clothes but kept his dragon scale scarf around his neck.

Wendy got into a white dress with unfamiliar flower patterns and blue strips.

Happy wore a helmet and Carla had a veil over her face.

"Oh, there's a building over there!" Natsu shouted just after he changed and rushed out of the storage towards a tree-like structure. Ginjo and ACnologia peered out of the window of the storage and their eyes widened at the insignia that was on it.

"It's Fairy Tail!" Acnologia shouted with a smile on her face. Yes, she was happy that Fairy Tail did not turn into a crystal structure that Carla had talked about. She rushed outside as well, but at the same time, she was confused. Fairy Tail's main building was a castle, not a tree. When did they get the building into a tree?

So, she stopped halfway, and Ginjo slowly walked up to her. For some reason, he was never quick with his movements. He was somewhat sluggish and only moved at a pace of a drunken turtle.

"So you noticed," Ginjo talked to her.

Acnologia looked at him from the side of her eyes. Her smile was gone, replaced by a grim scowl. Instead of replying, she nodded.

"That ain't your Fairy Tail," he vocalized her thoughts.

"There is no magic flowing out of the guild when there should be," she said. "But they have Fairy Tail's flag. So who are they?"

"It's Grey!"

"Elfman is there too! But ... everyone is so different," Happy said.

Wendy had reached them only few moments ago, and she was staring at the guild members through the window as well, just like Natsu.

"Well?" Ginjo asked as he came to them as well, but he hid behind the wall between the windows.

"I - I don't understand. They all look like our guild members, but there is something ... off about them."

Acnologia noticed it as well. "I don't see gramps," she said.

Natsu grunted. "Yeah." Then he creaked open the window a little, so that the group can hear the conversations going on inside.

But as time went by and they listened on them, the group grew frustrated. They sounded nothing like their guild members! Sure, they looked like them, but they all acted ... not so like them! For example, Lucy was shouting at people. Elfman was being bullied and was crying in the corner.

"...This is our guild," Wendy said. "But the people-"

"Are not our people."

Ginjo decided to speak then. "Then they are Edolas's Fairy Tail," he said, and everyone turned to him with wide eyes, as if what he said was something of a big deal. 'Well, it is on a indirect terms, but directly, I doubt it,' he thought. "We should avoid them-"

Then the door creaked open and Lucy came out of it with a kinky clothes.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Ah-ah..." Wendy stuttered, unable to pull out words.

Edolas Lucy scanned over the group of strangers before she landed her eyes on Natsu. "Natsu!" she shouted and bear hugged him. Natsu was too shocked by the fact that Edolas Lucy recognized him. That and the fact that Lucy was super fast and strong. Natsu gurggled as he tried to escape from the bear hug but Lucy seemed to really like holding him as if he was a teddy bear. She even shook his sideways.

"L-Lucy!"

"Lucy-san!" Wendy said.

The said woman turned to Wendy and gave a confused expression. "Have we met before, brat?"

Wendy's eyes began to water at hearing the word 'brat.'

"Oi!" Ginjo shouted. "Don't make the kid cry!"

"I-I didn't do anything!" E. Lucy retorted.

"You hurt her feelings!" Natus retorted.

"What did I do?!" she snapped back at him, completely taken back by Natsu's behavior.

Soon, all of the Edolas Fairy Tail's guild members were out, talking and arguing.

"It's Natsu!"

"Who's this?"

"Woah. Is it me, or do you and she look alike?"

Everyone froze and began to compare the two beauties. One was black haired, the other was blue haired. Not only their face, they wore similar clothes and had similar ... bosom sizes. That was, however, rude to point out, and considering the scowling face Acnologia had plastered unto her face for her own distinction, it would have been a suicide move.

"...She does!" Ginjo said, trying to dissipate the awkward and harsh silence that had settled between the Edolas Fairy Tail and Earthland Fairy Tail rescuers. Ginjo's words did what he intended to do, and people began to chatter. Rather noisily for Acnologia's preference, though.

Acnologia just looked up to the sky, completely ignoring everyone. Though many were confused, they did not ask why she did so, nor did they wait to talk to their comrades.

"Oi, Acnologia."

The black haired beauty looked down from the sky to Ginjo, who called her. He had cold sweat breaking out on his face, and he certainly did not look comfortable.

"What?"

"You and I need to talk about Ichigo."

Acnologia gave Natsu and Wendy a look, though they weren't looking back at her before she followed Ginjo to a more isolated area of the clearing.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Ichigo is here in this world, but he is nowhere near us," he said. "I think you can feel him if you try."

"Why me? Aren't you better at this? I mean, you come from the same world as he came from."

Ginjo grinned. "We received similar 'training' but I had to leave that world before I could 'finish' it. Yes, you are right though. I can do it, but if I try to, then Ichigo will recognize that I'm trying to look for him. He might be well with it, but he also might not be. I do not want to risk him hiding, so I'm asking you to do it."

Acnologia gave him a raised eyebrow. But she closed her eyes and concentrated.

She still remembered all of the things that Ichigo taught her. They were never official nor didactic instructions; they were simple hints. She remembered during one of their food hunting episodes, just before they ran across water and ran into Tower of Heaven, she had asked him about how he was tracking down humans and animals that leave no trace of smell or track behind.

_'I look for their soul. It leaves a trace behind. But I guess for you, the closest explanation would be that I go after raw life force that they leave behind.'_

At first, she hadn't understood. How can someone leave their life force behind like a track? It was just improbable. Yes, improbable, not impossible. She had thought it was improbable because nothing was impossible. But when she "felt" and "saw" Ginjo's own presence earlier that day, she understood after that long time.

So she concentrated, bringing up the feeling she had received then.

There was a silence between the two as Acnologia let her own power spread out like a web and searched for Ichigo.

It was like she was a spider, weaving a great web pf her own magic power. 'Ichigo would have said something along the lines of _"Oh, that would be mana particles set on a loop to return to you after reaching a certain distance_" or something like that,' Acnologia thought, but as far as she was concerned, she was sending out her power, waiting for a feedback.

T-Tha.

Thamp.

Thamp thamp.

Thamp thamp.

Though she was unfamiliar with the concept or the actual machinery that is the radar, she saw Ichigo's location in a map in her mind drawn by her expanding magic, similar to how radar worked.

When she cut it off, she found herself staring at a concerned Ginjo.

"What?" she growled at him.

"You're sweating."

She scowled. She was a dragon, not some scrawny human who gets tired over some magic-.

She looked back at herself, and then there the thought was cut off. She was indeed sweating. "How...?" she muttered quietly. She was supposed to be a dragon, and not a -. Oh right. Magic was not common in this world as her world. She could use it, yes, but it required a more concentration along with more end stress than she ever felt in the Earthland.

She grinned at the thought of a challenge of pushing herself to her own limits. 'This might be a bit fun.' "Alright, one more time."

**-AoL**

A man in red armor approached another in similar armor. The one he approached had more complicated patterns.

"My Lord," he said and gave a salute.

"What is it?"

"The Kingdom's hunters have been seen heading towards Fairy Tail's location."

The man raised his eyebrow. "Is that so?"

The soldier nodded.

"Well, it took them long enough. I'll go report to the Head, but you know what to do."

"Ambush them as planned?"

The officer nodded. "But to your best to pick them out from afar, especially when they are on their Legions."

The soldier gave another salute and hurried away. It was not long before the officer heard shouts of order and gathering.

He then sighed and began to walk towards the opposite direction of the soldier.

He and the soldier were part of the Red Shield Rebellion, a group of fighters who wished to see the end of the current oppressive regime. Despite being only five months old, the Red Shield had grown in strength and size to become a serious opponent for the Royal Army over the last two months.

'But the change itself was brought on by the current leader,' he thought as he stopped before a wooden door and rapped his knuckles on it.

"Head."

"..."

"Head, the Royal Army has spotted Fairy Tail."

"...Is that so?" the 'Head' muttered as he opened the door.

Unlike the officer, the Head had no red armor. Instead, he wore a red shirt and pants. He had orange hair that stood out, but infinitely less in his red clothes than it would have with other colors. He had a silent scowl on his face -it was directed at no one in paticular but it was just a part of his face. He carried, however, a giant black sword. The sword itself had many things bound to it. Runic seals on paper, character seals on linen, and necklaces and beads around its hilt and blade. But the feature that stood out among these other noticeable feature was the the white skull-like mask with red streaks on them.

The officer got the chill that ran down his spine whenever he met the Head. It was a chill that told him that this man was unique. That this man was powerful. That this man had an aura of authority.

"Y-Yes, sir."

The Head's eyes hardened. "Have out forces...?"

"Yes, sir! I've ordered them to go out and ambush the Royal Army!"

The Head's eyes smiled. "Good, good." Then there was a silence. "But know what, Cakiri?"

The officer gave him a confused face when the Head placed his right hand on the man's right shoulder and walked out of the command room.

"There are very important guests today. Guests who have come from where I came from, Cakiri. Let's go find them."

-AoL

Now Carla and Happy managed to avoid much of the attention of the Edolas Fairy Tail, most likely because they were so small and hung around Ginjo, since he did not attract much attention himself with all of the guild members awing at the similarity between Acnologia and Edolas Wendy and Natsu shouting something like "Lisanna." They were happy about it too.

"Who is this Ichigo, really?"

Happy turned and looked at Carla, who asked him the question.

"Ah?"

"The God of Fairy Tail."

"Ah, Ichigo-chan! He was such a smart guy! He gave me fishes too!"

Carla facepalmed. "Aside from him giving you fishes."

"Natsu was too weak compared to him."

"Really?"

"Ichigo-chan took Natsu as a disciple and trained him along with Gray and Cana," Happy said as he remembered the 'happy' times where Ichigo beat the crap out of the three mages and sent them on ridiculous training exercises.

"Exactly how strong was he?" Carla asked.

"Didn't you hear about him much?"

"Aside from hearing about him being ridiculously strong from others in vague manner, I haven't heard much."

"Oh." There was a pause. "He defeated Acnologia with only 10% of his power."

"... That's ridiculous. Acnologia there is the dragon of darkness and decay, the strongest of the strongest and -"

"Ichigo-chan's girlfriend."

"Oi, cat! Stop talking about me"! Acnologia growled, having finished her second "radar." She looked very tired, and she also looked like a pissed off cat that needs to be left alone. Funny, considering that she was talking to one.

"A-Aye!"

"... I found him, but he's on the move," Acnologia growled as she rubbed her temples. "Twenty kilometers from where we are right now."

"That's awful close," Ginjo said nonchalantly. "Maybe he knows what happened to our Fairy Tail."

"Maybe," she replied. Then she turned to the crowd. "Natsu! Wendy!"

The two whirled around upon hearing her. "Yes?"

"We found Ichigo. Let's go get him first."

Natsu was the first to brighten up. Well, more than before since he was extremely happy about seeing Edolas Lisanna.

"Where? Where is he?" Natsu bombarded as he ran up to Acnologia, who only gave him the foot to his face.

"He's on the move, but not too far away from us."

"Well then, check it again!" Natsu shouted as he tried to push Acnologia away, but immediately regretted shouting in front of her. Having seen so much things new and old, he let himself go a bit in front of Acnologia, and realized that he made a big mistake. After all, Acnologia was a short-tempered dragon.

Her frowning face slowly turned into a smirk with a devious glare.

"Ho... I just found something beat my frustration out on..." she drawled as she pushed off Natsu with her foot. She drew out a bit of her magic and forced her hands and forelimbs to change back into her original dragon limbs, complete with claws. "Are you ready Natsu?"

Natsu gulped before he activated his own magic.

He then blinked. 'I thought magic didn't work here...'

Acnologia grinned. "Enough concentration brings out magic, Natsu. And I think your instinct did that for you..."

"Oh god..."

"Instinct to survive from me!" she roared with a evil laughter.

**-Scene Break**

Erza Knightwalker did not expect the usually shivering Fairy Tail to be out in the open, making a mess of the nearby forests with fire and something black. Neither causes of the forest's destruction looked healthy for her.

"They're finally making some mess, huh?" she grinned and then she ordered the Royal Army behind her. "Take them out!"

**-Scene Break**

Acnologia hadn't even started beating up Natsu when she felt the presence of a force flying towards them in great numbers.

'Didn't know I was keeping my magic up in passive form,' she thought as she stopped mid-track of beating Natsu, who already had bruises and right black eye. "Natsu, we got company."

"Eh? How do you know?" he asked her as he got up, just thankful that the pummeling had stopped because Acnologia was distracted.

"Trust me. I found them with the magic I used to find Ichigo's general direction."

"Flying, did you say?"

The two of them turned to Edolas Mirajane.

"Yes. Is something the matter?" Acnologia replied and asked back at her.

Mirajane and gulped and quickly ran over to her guild. "Get the magic up and running! The Royal Army found us!"

The Edolas Fairy Tail was quick on the move, as if they were getting ready for some sort of battle.

"Alright! I get to find out how strong our Edolas Counterparts are!" Natsu said, getting pumped up for the obvious action to come. But for some reason, the guild members were ... retreating, retreating back into the great wood like structure of their guild.

Ginjo was the first of the Earthland mages to go up to them and ask the obvious question. "Are you guys hiding?"

"We have to!" Edolas Elfman replied. "We're not strong enough to defeat the Royal Army."

Natsu and Wendy blinked.

Say what?

"We can't possibly go against them. We have to run away!"

Now, even Acnologia was surprised. Then she realized it. Edolas Fairy Tail. They were Earth's counterpart, but their attitude was also different! They were cowards!

But if the change in their attitude was because they were in a different world, then -.

"Where's Erza?" she asked.

Wendy looked about and then into the Edolas Fairy Tail's windows while they were telling the Earthland mages to come in.

"S-She's not here..." Wendy replied.

Acnologia groaned. "Seriously?" she muttered. "Please don't tell me that girl will be our enemy."

Then there was a roar that resonated throughout the forest.

They all looked up.

Flying cows.

There were flying cows above them.

**-Scene Break**

"The Royal Army's attacking the Fairy Tail!"

Cakiri, the officer of the Red Shield from before, grunted. "Fire!"

**-Scene Break**

Now the Royal Army had nothing to expect. Fairy Tail was a coward dark guild that always ran away with their magic boosted guild hall. It was always a tedious job for the Royal Army. Go after Fairy Tail, and just before they manage to capture them, they would just disappear through the ground. The worst part of it was that the magic made their escape untraceable by any means of magic. What was more frustrating was the fact that they never ever fought back. Not even once.

It was a goose chase around the entire kingdom.

So when they saw one of their own Legions get its head blown off by an explosion, it was ... surprise. Simple surprise, but nothing more.

"It's not Fairy Tail!" Erza Knightwalker shouted back at the Fairy Hunting party that was assigned to follow her. "It's Red Shield!" Then she forced her Legion to whirl around towards the mountains in the distance.

**-Scene Break**

"Is that Erza Knightwalker?" Cakiri muttered under his breath.

Erza Knightwalker. One of the captains of the Royal Army. She was known for her ruthlessness as well as her powers.

"The 'Fairy Hunter' herself is here, eh?" he then turned to one of his comrades. "Is the Head here yet?"

"No, sir. It seems that he will be arriving few minutes later, according to the last of our soldiers who came through to here," he replied.

"Huh. Let's just do our best to kick their ass. I mean, we have these things the Head made us for this kind of occasion, right?" Cakiri grinned as he turned to the Heavy Assualters. They were all carrying a long barreled weapon of some sort that used tiny steel cylinders and mixtures of multiple grains.

Yes, the Head made them a rifle. Specifically, a sniper rifle. It was that weapon that made them feel at ease. Normally, Red Shields would use guerrilla tactics to do damage upon the Royal Army and the Royal Family. However, after the current Head took over the Red Shields, he introduced weapons and ways, such as this weapon he called sniper rifle, that led the Red Shields to lead a more frontal assault.

"Fire again."

**-Scene Break**

Erza Knightwalker hissed as one of those damnable invisible arrows put a cut on her thigh. It was impossible to dodge them without knowing exactly where they were coming form, and even over a large distance, they were very accurate.

"Evasive maneuver! Don't let those things hit you or the Legion!" she shouted over the screams of several more of the weapons.

"Oh. She finally guessed where we were," Cakiri muttered. "Fire away. Don't wait for command."

**-Scene Break**

While the two forces were duking it out, or more like a one way slaughter with the number of Legions falling out of the sky and the Royal Army unable to fight back, the Earthland mages saw their chance to fight.

"I'm pumped up!" Natsu grinned. "Happy-!"

Acnologia grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to turn around.

"What?" he asked.

"Whoever is shooting at them will most likely not know that we are their ally ... if they are our ally. These Royal Army is out to get Edolas Fairy Tail, but not us, remember?"

"But they are one of ... us!"

"Doesn't matter. Besides, if you go up there, you are going to end up shot to dead just like how those guys are," she said as she glanced up at the sky. "If you really want to fight, then make fireballs or something you can throw," Acnologia said before she turned away. "As for me, I'm just going to watch."

Natsu grumbled. "Fine, but I'm fighting to protect these guys," he replied before making fireballs and throwing them at the nearby Legions, setting them alight on fire.

Ginjo silently looked at the Legions falling out of the sky like dead fall leaves. They were being shot down by something incredibly tiny and fast, or they will be able to see and dodge them. Not all of whatever hostile weaponery that was shooting them down, but at least some. And the manner in which the Legions were shot down reminded Ginjo of a certain invention that humans back on Earth used. Snipers. But he didn't know how to make it, and that left Ichigo.

Was Ichigo killing these soldiers, or had the man given the secrets of brutal warfare to these people? Either way, Ichigo didn't seem like the Ichigo he knew.

He just went over towards Acnologia and saw down near her, content to just watch Natsu and Wendy fight.

"But where the hell is Ichigo?" Acnologia grumbled, frustrated. She was so close to Ichigo now. She was sure that he knew that she was here. So why wasn't he coming to her?


	13. Chapter 13

_In the anime (no dub), Carla is called Cha-ru-ru, which sounds more like Charlie than Carla. So I asked the question about it. And with so little people responding, I just decided to go with Carla, though I am much more familiar with typing Charlie for some reason. Carla just doesn't get used to my fingers._

**Chapter 13**

Erza Knightwalker made obscene curses before she turned to her Fairy hunting squad. "Retreat! We're taking too much casualties!"

The others quickly reined in their Legions and turned their tail. After all, if one saw comrades fall like leaves against an invisible weapon that made no sound whatsoever, then it struck fear into him/her. All of them were just glad that Erza decided to give orders for retreat.

As she herself turned around, Erza eyed the mountains and the Fairy Tail.

"We'll get you for sure, Kurosaki..." she hissed, speaking the name of the current leader of the Red Shields with hate and malice.

"Watch out, captain!"

**-Scene Break**

When the Earthland mages near the Edolas Fairy Tail saw the Royal Army retreat, they grinned to themselves. They had damaged yet another enemy threatening the livelihood of another.

The Edolas Fairy Tail had also watched what was happening above, saving their escape plan if the Earthland mages and the anonymous felons in the mountains failed to take down the Royal Army. They were, in the end, pretty much awed by what they saw. Though Natsu was not able to do a great deal of damage, he took both more than ten Legions and set fire to more than thirty soldiers riding those Legions. That was nothing compared to the amount of damage the mountain bandits did with their invisible and silent weapons, but it was still a lot.

"W-Wow..." Lisanna muttered.

This was definitely her Natsu from Earthland.

"He's strong," Mirajane said as she looked out of the window from just behind her. "Completely different from the Natsu we know."

"Mira-nee-?"

The said woman placed her hand on Lisanna's head, who was sitting down and thus thankfully shorter than "her" older sister.

"Oi, Fairy Tail!"

Everyone, including Lisanna and Mirajane, turned to Acnologia who was much closer to them than Natsu. Ginjo stood somewhere between Natsu and Acnologia and Wendy stood by Ginjo's side with Happy and Carla. From the Edolas Fairy Tail's point of view, they looked cool and strong, but their attention was focused on Acnologia, who seemed to be the leader at the moment in the group of mages.

"You may as well use whatever method you use to get the f*** out of here!" she said as she crossed her arms right underneath her bosoms. "Those guysnow know where you are, and considering that we and those people up there in the mountains ambushed them pretty badly, they will come back with a greater force. So get out! We have someone to find."

"Wait, come with us!" Lisanna said, hoping that this might give her a bit more time with her Natsu. She knew that they had to separate eventaully, because she couldn't leave these people behind, but if this might bring him closer to her for just a few more moments, then she was fine. "If you could use magic like that and fight, you must not be from around here!"

"Hell, yeah! But we need to find him before we do anything. He has all answers that we want," Acnologia said.

"But-!"

Mirajane poked Lisanna on the side, who in response jumped up a bit. She whirled around.

"Mira-nee?"

"Go with them?"

A moment of silence.

"Ah?!"

The older sister just smiled. "I know that our Lisanna died a long time ago. I realized it the moment you came. But we took you in anyway, because ... we didn't want to let go of her," she said quietly as if like a confession. "I also realized this further when I saw them. A small Wendy... A fiery Natsu."

"Mira-nee-!"

Elfman grabbed her, crying, and put her over his shoulder. "Time for you to go, Lisanna... WAHHH!"

"Elfman!"

**-Scene Break**

The Earthland mages were about to leave when they heard a slam and a thud behind them. So they turned around, and saw Lisanna tossed outside.

"She says that she wants to go with you!" Mirajane shouted out of the window. "Good luck!"

Then they disappeared, the entire guild digging into the earth like a root it looked like ad disappeared, leaving behind a sealed up hole.

Lisanna just looked over the shoulder and gave "WTF?!" expression at the sealed up ground.

"... You can use magic, can't you?" Acnologia asked.

Lisanna snapped her head back to Acnologia. "I-I don't know what you're talking about-!"

"Sorry, I'm late for introductions, aren't I?" Acnologia smiled, giving the much younger lady a bow afterward. "My name's Acnologia. You can also call me the Dragon of Apocalypse."

For a second, Lisanna was confused. How can a human be a dragon? Where did she get that nickname from? It was a ominous one at that too.

Natsu approached the two ladies and then turned to Acnologia. "Wait, are you saying that-?"

"Yes. She's from Earthland. I can see the magic in her just waiting to be-"

"Lisanna!" Natsu shouted, hugging the second time.

"It's our Lisanna!" Happy shouted as she jumped on them as well.

"Okay, okay! Right now is not the time for-!" Acnologia said as she tried to pry off the two from the poor girl.

"Reunion?"

She turned around, pissed off that someone had interrupted her for the third time that day. "Yes, it's not the t-!" But she stopped herself short, her scowl disappearing. Her eyes softened. "I-Ichigo?" she spoke softly.

**-Scene Break**

When the captain of the 1st Army, Pantherlily, saw paramedics run around in the halls with haste, he grew confused. He grabbed one of the closest nurse and began to ask questions.

"What happened?"

"The Legion air forces that were sent out to take care of Fairy Tail returned with only half of their original numbers and even that half has fatal injuries, Legions and soldiers alike. I'm sorry, I need to get going sir," the nurse replied quickly before he ran off again.

Pantherlily watched the nurse run to the infirmary of the palace and then come out with a paramedic, and a stretched between them. It was only than that Pantherlily saw how serious this was.

So he followed the running nurses to the open plaza.

He stopped short of stepping into it.

Legions were sprawled all over the place, some already dead and other writhing in pain. Soldiers were in same condition as well. Those who were lucky enough to survive the trip were screaming in pain as their wounds spewed out blood like a stream. Those that didn't survive the trip laid dead with a cloth over their body and face.

"W-What the hell happened here?!" he roared. The nurses, medics, and paramedics all gave him a curt salute before going back to work. But the man who came to do the explanation was a common soldier whose left arm had been blown off.

"W-What happened to you and the squad?" the captain asked, his eyes wide with anger. "Who did this?!"

"T-The Red Shields. C-Captain Knightwalker identified them by the weapons they were using. They shot us from-" the common coughed up blood a bit, silently."They shot from a distance where we couldn't even identify individual people. On top of that, they were hiding in the forest. Captain had an idea of where they were shooting from and led a small force to try to subdue them, but she had to retreat even before reaching half of the way to them. They shot us even as we retreated..." the soldier trailed off towards the end and then collapsed into the arms of a paramedic who had been hesitating. The paramdeic gave a bow before carrying the man on his back to the infirmary.

"Where is she? Where' s Erza-!"

"I'm here, you big cat. You're damn loud..." Erza growled from the Exceed's right.

The said Exceed turned and grinned at her. "I see. You weren't that badly," he replied.

Erza was as he said. All she had was a bandage to her stomach with few blood stains.

"This wasn't done by the Red Shields..."

**_*Flashback*_**

_"Watch out, captain!"_

_"Fire Dragon's Breath!"_

_Erza, who was unfamiliar with those words, twisted her head to her back to see what was coming. In doing so, she also stopped her Legion. What she saw was a bright ball of fire coming at her. 'Shit-!'_

_It struck her._

_CCCRRRAASSSHHHH!_

_There was a big ball of smoke in the sky where Erza Knightwalker took the fire dragonslayer's hit_

_Then from the side, a Legion popped out of it._

_Erza Knightwalker stood on top of it with her weapon, the Ten Commendment. "That was close."_

_She flinched though, and hovered her hand over her stomach, where there was a dark black burn. 'Shit...'_

**_*Flashback End*_**

"You had to use your Holy Spear...!" Pantherlily muttered with awe. IT was not often that one heard of Knightwalker pulling out her Holy Spear, the strongest form of the Ten Commendment.

She nodded.

"Those guys ... Earthland mages are no joke."

BOOOMMMMM

"What was that?!" Pantherlily whirled around, searching for signs of trouble. And he spotted it in the distance at the edge of the Royal City.

The giant lacryma.

"It's probably one of the Red Shields..." Erza hissed as she got up. "They need it as much as we do."

"No, you stay here. I'll go," Pantherlily said. Erza wanted to object but let the giant Exceed go and do what he wanted. She just raised her hands up and shrugged. The Exceed man grinned and sprouted his wings and flew away towards the site of the explosion.

**-Scene Break**

Fortunately for the Gazille, he had not turned into one of those lacrymas that he was targetting while the rest of his guild members had been. He was now fighting the soldiers trying to protect it, but he was using magic, thanks to Mystogan's pill. Without it, he would have been as powerless as the next person... Soldier that he beating up.

There was too much soldiers between him and the giant lacryma. It was moving away from him very quickly, and he didn't like that. So how could he jumped over these soldiers? The best solution was to just simply jump over them, but they were pretty well armed. He had to jump way over them, but without a cat like Natsu and Wendy had, it was impossible.

Gazille stopped for a second, which was almost close for a soldier

"Come on!" he roared as he made a giant blade out of arm and chopped a rather large chunk of the lacryma.

The soldiers gawked in fear as they watched the large chunk slide off ... and then with a giant puffy smoke, two people emerged from it.

It was Gray and Erza.

"E-Eh?! People came out of the lacryma crystal!" one of the guard shouted.

Gazille grinned. "Yo!" he called to the two, who were obviously confused by the mass of armed and armored guards.

"G-Gazille, what's going on?" Erza asked.

"Well, you were in that," Gazille said as he pointed at the lacryma crystal.

The two turned around and gave the crystal one look, and being experienced in seeing details, they also saw that the crystal also had a huge part of it chopped away.

"Yeah, I got you out of there. But I need help right now!" Gazille shouted as he whirled around and bat away another soldier while rest of them were pulling the crystal away. "We need to secure it!"

"Are there others?!" Erza shouted as she re-equipped.

"Yeah!" Gazille shouted before having to fight back others. "I'll keep them distracted, you go and find them! I can't take down that crystal alone!"

Gray put his hands together. "Ice Make: Sky Road!" Then he slammed his hands on the ground before him, and ice began to make a slow ascent and then shot up into the sky.

"W-Wha-?!" the guard almost roared in unison at the spectacular show of lacryma-less magic.

"Come on, Erza!"

"I'm leaving it to you, Gazille! Distract them!"

"Pleasure."

**-Scene Break**

When he appeared before her, Acnolgoia was at a loss of words. It was because she was just shocked by how ... casual he appeared. How decent he appeared even without her at his side. How ... satsified he looked. For some reason, those were the only thoughts that swept over her head. There was no happiness, no anger, just questions that was soon to trigger some of the latter and other negative emotions if not treated properly.

She stood up silently and forced herself to give him a neutral expression.

"Ichigo," she said. But the tone was curt and aggressive.

Ichigo she wanted was someone she could depend on. A mentor, a friend, and a lover. He gave off a aura that was protective and warm when she was about him. Even when he was near others he tried to give off the same warmth. Yes, the magic she taught him had done some dents in that aura but there was no drastic change within him.

Ichigo Natsu knew was a mentor and a friend. He always tried to do his best and gave his best. Yes, he was a bit sadistic when it came to training, since he believed that it was a much faster way to develop, albeit more painful as well.

But Ichigo before them was dark. Even towards her and Natsu, he carried about a dark and oppressive aura. It was as if he was trying to force her and Natsu to get away from him.

"Why are you here, Ginjo?"

Acnologia blinked. Natsu did as well. They turned to Ginjo and saw a smirk on the man's face.

"Don't get me wrong, Ichigo. I'm here to help you. So is Mystogan and Wendy."

There was an intense silence between them.

Ichigo then slowly looked over his shoulder. "You can come out, guys. They mean no harm."

And immediately, an entire regiment of heavily armed soldiers with a decent amount of armored soldiers as well made their way out of the brushes.

"Head, who are they?" Cakiri asked as he quickly ran up to Ichigo.

Ichigo looked at the man casually. "My girlfriend," he said with a bright smile. "And the rest are my friends." The oppressive aura that had existed only moments ago disappeared.

"You also don't need to make that ugly reiatsu pressure just because I'm here," Ginjo added with a smirk.

Ichigo narrowed his eyes; they glinted with murder. "Shut up..." he hissed in a comical way, though. As if seeing an old rival again.

"Hmm. So do you have ramen?"

"Why does that come out here?!"

Acnologia let herself grin.

Ichigo then turned to her and gave her a even bigger grin and smile. "Want to give me a hug?"

She nodded and then jumped in his arms with a laugh.

Ichigo hugged her back as well.

And it seemed like they were all happy and whatnot ...

"Y-You're the Head of the Red Shields?!"

They all turned to Lisanna.

"Yes, I am. Is that a problem?" he asked in return.

Lisanna quickly stood up and ran up to him, grabbed one of his hands with hers, and shook it violently. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Ichigo, who was a bit confused by what she was doing, just gave her a confused "Uh..."

"You saved my guild multiple times already! I can't thank you enough for that!"

Ichigo's face gave off a shock but then it softened to a grin and a smile.

"Ichigo!"

The said man turned around and watched, amused with the tone of the call, as the Salamander throw him a flaming punch meant to be warm welcome.

Ichigo pulled out his sealed up sword and blocked Natsu's attack. It did no physical damage, but as soon as the flames came into contact with the sword, the flames dissipated.

Rather, the flames were sucked up by Ichigo's sword.

"Come on, Natsu. I'm sure you can do better than that," he said as he detached himself from both Lisanna and Acnolgoia with a single flow of his right. It was the hand that had Lisanna shaking it violently, but with a gentle release, she released it as well and he used the same right hand to grab Acnologia's side and twist her around until she was in his right arm. Then he let go. "It's been ... 2 months, give or take?"

"Hell yes!" Natsu shouted. He was obviously fired up for a spar.

"Then let me use magic instead. Magic that I developed here," Ichigo said as he set Zangetsu down.

"Bring it on, teach!"

Acnologia, however, decided to step in between. "Your friends first, Natsu."

"Ah, right."

**-Scene Break**

Erza and Gray ran around the city's shadows and shades, avoiding people as they searched for their friends.

"Do you think that they are in the city?" Gray asked Erza as he jumped down from one of the building's roof and into a haystack that must have been left for the bedmakers.

"At least some must be. The lacryma that holds our guild is here, so if they are not, they are coming," she replied with confidence. "I'm sure of it."

"... Do you think Gazille will be safe, though?" he asked as they began to run again.

"I'm sure he is."

**-Scene Break**

Gazille really was not.

He met this really big cat. A big cat with muscles. And wings.

And armor.

And a really, really big sword.

"...Be my cat."

Pantherlily paused. "What?" he growled at Gazille.

"I'm asking you because you look strong. If I beat you, you'll become my cat," Gazille said with a grin as he picked up one of the steel swords and bit a chunk out of it.

Pantherlily just gave the guy a scowl. What was this guy? A mage from Earthland? But he was different from the one that he heard about from Erza. Erza said the mage that attacked her used fire, but this mage ate iron. "Who are you?"

"I'm Gazille Redfox from Fairy Tail, and those," he said as he pointed over his shoulder at the retreating form of the giant lacryma. "Are my friends."

"Then die with the knowledge that your friends will give this kingdom infinite magic," Pantherlily said as he pulled out his sword and swung down on Gazille.

The sword hit Gazille, or so he thought. He looked a bit to the side and gawked at what he saw.

Gazille caught the sword between mouth.

Shocked by what Gazille did, he he pulled his sword away, only to have Gazille take a bite out of it.

"Ooh... That's good steel," the dragonslayer said. "Iron Dragon's Dual Sword!" he chanted, and both of his arms turned into serrated swords. "My turn!" he roared as he struck down with both of his swords.

Pantherlily dodged to his right with a jump close to the ground. He looked to some of the soldiers as if he was gliding in air. In truth, he had just jumped at the right angle with enough power. Such precise execution was only brought out by years of training and refined power, and as such was the epitome of any career soldiers, the other soldiers awed at it.

"You're good as I thought!" Gazille grinned. His arms returned to normal, and instead, his cheeks bloated. "Iron Dragon's Roar!"

Pantherlily hadn't come into contact with lacryma-less magic, but he had seen what Gray can do, so he guessed that whatever that was coming at him was ...

As soon as those three words left Gazille's mouth, it was as if those words took an invisible shape and struck out at him, demolishing the ground beneath and distorting the air around. The Exceed's eyes widened. What kind of attack was that?! He was in the air and with the extra weight on him, it was impossible to dodge-!

BOOM!

**-Scene Break**

_Aconny's POV_

Acnologia haven't felt this heat in months. Her arms were wrapped around his arm and he was almost dragging her as they walked in the front of a small group composed of only him, Cakiri, Acnologia, Natsu, Wendy, Happy, Lisanna, Ginjo, and Carla. As such, they had some privacy, if they excluded Cakiri.

"So I see that you were busy, Ichigo," Acnologia said as she glared at Cakiri, who took the heat of the glare and gave her one of his own.

"I guess. I saw the Royal Army doing some idiotic things, so I decided to fight along with those who couldn't fight back. It really is simple."

"Oh yeah. Just like the time when you went out and almost got yourself killed by some hollow in Hueco Mundo. Actually, you died there, didn't you..."

Ichigo glared at Ginjo which said "What do you know?"

"I watched you for some time. Such knowledge comes close..." He ducked just as Ichigo threw a rock at him. "Sensitive, are we?"

"... How did you end up here, Ginjo? I never asked that from you before and I am still curious," Ichigo asked.

Acnologia was still confused. Ichigo and Ginjo. Two men who came from the same world. It was obvious to her that they had a relationship before, but she was curious about the said relationship. She wanted to know how they knew each other and met each other, probably because it was Ichigo she was talking about. She wanted to know more about him.

_Ginjo's POV_

Ginjo thought about it as the group walked towards the Royal City. It would take them at least several hours to reach the location, which would be more than enough time to tell his story in detail. But did he want to tell his story in detail?

Better question, which was going to come first, him finishing the story or Ichigo cutting his head because of his short temper?

He chuckled outloud, confusing some of his comrades.

"Well, I'd like to begin at exactly where we left off, Ichigo," Ginjo began. He looked at Ichigo for some sort of permission before continuing.

"Go on."

"Alright," he said. "When I died and all of the Fullbringers dissipated and you were gone and working with the soul reapers, someone decided to come by and revive me as if I was asleep. Truth be told, I was dead, but when he touched me, I woke up."

"But when I left you," Ichigo muttered. "You were in a grave..."

"I know."

"In the coffin...?"

"Yeah. The bastard came in my coffin. Obviously, I made hell lot of ruckus and ended up putting a nice little hole there in the graveyard using my cero." He paused for a while. "Then when we were away, that man began to tell of a new world where I could begin again. He told me the general idea of what was going to happen in that world in order to convince me."

"And seeing as you are here..."

"Yes and no. He didn't really convince me. In fact, he said that he was only giving me the 'option' of going to that world to make it look like he was generous. He said that if I didn't go, he'll just kill me again."

"Again?"

"Yeah, I kind of died in that coffin twice."

"Ew," Acnologia cringed and backed away from Ginjo.

"... Anyway, moving on. So I decided that I will go. He led me to a portal and pushed me through, and I landed only few kilometers from the Royal City of Fiore."

"That's it?"

"Uh huh. No other stories," Ginjo said. "From there, I began to work for Jellal on the basis that I'll tell him the future and he'll support whatever I do. Fortunately, I knew that the guy was possessed by, messed with, and then controlled by the Grimmoire Heart so I just -"

"What heart?"

Ginjo turned to Acnologia, who suddenly had a serious expression.

"Grimmoire Heart. Why do you ask?"

"... It's nothing."

"..." Ginjo looked at her from the corner of his eyes, and he narrowed his eyes.

Ginjo saw the difference in Acnologia's behavior as well. The light reflected upon the anger in her eyes and the clenched jaw muscles.

'It looks like this Grimmoire Hearts is something that she does not like one bit,' he thought to himself.

"We're here."

The group stopped and looked about. "Where are we?"

"The Royal City is surrounded by mountain ranges where all the metals and other hardwares were dug out of such," Carla began to explain, squeezing information out of her head. She pointed down from where they were. "It is also right beneath the Exceed homeland, Exteria."

Everyone shifted their gaze from the floating landmass and then the Royal City. "Huh. They live so close to each other."

"But apparently, humans aren't allowed to enter Exteria and those that help are exiled," she added.

"What are we waiting for? Let's get our people out!" Natsu shouted as he jumped to slide down the slope of the cliff, but Ichigo lashed out and grabbed Salamander's shirt, preventing him from falling and forcing the fire dragon slayer to remain next to Carla. "What are you doing, Ichigo? We have to rescue our friends as fast as we can!"

"... Unlike you, I have a faction to lead, Natsu. If you and others go in start making a fuss, then we won't know exactly where to attack to create least amount of casualty," Ichigo said as he set Natsu down. "Are you going to take on the King directly?"

"No... I'm only going to get wherever our guild members are and I'll-!" Natsu cut himself off when he heard something big behind him. He whirled around. "That's Gazille's roar!" he hissed as he jumped down. "Like I'll let you have all the fun!"

Wendy and the Exceeds fidgeted. They looked at Acnologia and Ichigo, as if asking for permission. The man, in turn, turned to Ginjo. "Make sure no one gets hurt too seriously, Ginjo," he said and turned around with Acnologia still following him.

"Okay, okay," the man replied before lifting and slinging Wendy over his shoulders. He then grabbed the Exceeds by their tail, to which they showed immediate dislike, and shunpo'ed towards Natsu.

-Scene Break

"Why didn't you go with them, Ichigo? Is it really because of your Red Shields?" Acnologia asked as they watched the Fairy Tail mages, their Exceeds, and Ginjo go to make trouble.

"...It is because of Red Shields. They were victims of this world's king, and I intend to make sure I fix it up."

"Even though you aren't from this world?"

Ichigo remained silent. "There was an old quote, Acnologia. I know that there is something similar in Edolas and Earthalnd. 'With great power comes great responsibility'." After saying that, Ichigo halted and remained silent for a moment. Gently, he slid his arm away from Acnologia and then brought both of his hands into his pockets. "I have a responsibility to carry out, even if I must stop at bringing down the Royal Family of this world. Even if it means that I have to kill. And I already have killed many."

Acnologia felt a chill run up her spine. As far as she could remember, Ichigo never actually killed anyone. He seriously wounded his enemies when necessary, but he has never killed anyone before in front of her. He had threatened to kill before, but that was different from actually killing. At least in front of her... Did he kill before?

"...Ichigo?"

He looked at her. "Yes?" he answered quietly.

"You're acting strange," she said it bluntly, but it was true. He was acting strange, and it was scaring her.

He smirked almost immediately. "I guess I changed a bit. No, a lot," he replied bluntly in return.

She stared at him.

"What happened?" she asked.

He looked at her with his usual scowl, but as seconds passed, his face slowly distorted.

Acnologia grew from confused to pale as she watched her boyfriend's expression change. "W-What?" she stuttered as she backpedaled, away from Ichigo. It was a unconscious move, but it was enough to snap Ichigo out of his daze.

"...You were right to hate humans, Acnologia," he said to her as he turned his face away from her. "I was wrong to try to make you tolerate them."

"What ... are you talking about, Ichigo? You don't sound like yourself," she said as she tried to approach him.

Ichigo looked back at her and smiled. But the smile was dark, like that of a cunning hunter and a merciless murderer.

"I'll save our Fairy Tail, though, Acnologia. I'll bring them back to Earthland, and I shall return as well," he said as he grabbed his sword and held it up high in the air. Suddenly, there was an intense roar as hundreds, no thousands of people swarmed out of the forest surrounding the Royal City. All of them wore a red armor and held a red shield.

Acnologia whirled around, shocked by the sudden presence that she had not noticed before, being to occupied with Ichigo alone. "Wha-!?"

Ichigo brought his sword down unto the Royal City, and like ants, they began to swarm towards it.

"When I came into this dimension, Acnologia, I saw people slaughtering each other because of their greed. I tried to stop them, tried to console with the leaders, but it was impossible. So I decided to put an end to it," Ichigo declared. Then Mystogan teleported to Ichigo and walked up to him. Ichigo gave him one glance.

"Y-You were in this as well, Mystogan?" she asked.

"After Ichigo approached me not too long ago," he said as he took off his mask. "Though it pains me to murder my own family," he said as he turned to the Royal City as well. "I will put a stop to this with Ichigo."

"I-Ichigo, this isn't like you! Why aren't you taking care of it when you obviously have the power to do so?" she asked him frantically, not wanting to see her friends getting caught up in the midst of the battle.

"Because I want the denizens of Edolas to take care of their own problems," he said. "I shall lead, but I shall not fight nor kill unless it is absolutely necessary."

_War._

_It happens all the time._

_It happens because it must._

_For the advancement of humankind._

_For the protection of humankind._

_But do not be fooled by these words._

_War is a dreadful thing. _

_It has no glory._

_No honor._

_No peace._

_It is a dog fight._

_And only the winner shall take it all._

If she didn't know him, then she would have just looked at him with a weird look and just shook her head, thinking that what Ichigo uttered was just some human rant because he was tired of war.

But this was Ichigo.

He was supposed to be a mentor, a friend, and a instructor (Yes, there is a difference between instructor and mentor). Technically, he was still teaching through what he said, but the dark and malicious tone he used to talk certainly did not say that. It was like ... a hunter, giving the last lecture that his prey will ever get before the hunter devours the prey.

It was in his eyes and his voice.

He really had changed.


	14. Chapter 14

It really didn't take long for Acnologia to grow sick of Ichigo's attitude.

Scratch that.

She was immediately sick of him. Perhaps it was his initial influence on her that did it, but whatever it was, it had changed her to care for humans, and his actions and words now made her sick to the core.

"I can't believe this," she hissed, her face turning from a shocked expression to one of disgust. "This-"

"..." he ignored her. "Have the guards all rounded up. Kill anyone who resists," he commanded as he watched his "comrades" throw themselves unto the Royal City.

"Aye, sir."

"Ichigo, listen to me-!"

"Have the snipers stay here and pick out any commanding officers. Even lowly officers. And as I said before, only headshots. I don't want to see them suffering over a shot to the heart," he furthered instructed, ignoring her again.

Being a proud dragon, Acnologia rushed to Ichigo, grabbed him by the collar and forced him to look at her.

"Damn you, bastard! Listen to me-!"

Instantly, Ichigo's reiatsu came crashing down on everyone present. Acnologia felt her hands release his collar out of fear and felt her legs tremble. Unlike the rest of the Red Shields, though, she was still standing.

"Leave me, Acnologia," he said as he walked away. It was only when she didn't follow him that he restrained his reiatsu. "You can't be near me anymore. And listen when I say this: stay away."

Acnologia watched as Ichigo walked away. "... Ichigo," she muttered quietly as a single tear fell.

**-Scene Break**

"... Is this really okay?"

"Hmm?"

"Is this really okay, sir? I know that you're doing this for our sake, but that's one of your comrade. You don't have to show them such-"

"No, it's necessary. Unlike them, I can't return to Earthland," Ichigo replied as his own tears fell. "I lie to hurt them. And once they are hurt, they'll forget about me. Especially when I'm not near them when this fiasco is over and they return to their own world."

"What do you mean, sir? You can always-"

"...There was a magician by the name of Jellal. He and I fought. He used a magic called Abyss Break on me. It was a magic that was known to cause mass destruction, but there was something else within that magic that I did not realize until now," he said, explaining to his most trusted officer just so that he doesn't have to ruin the comrade/friend relationship between them over this. "I learned only after arriving here that Abyss Break was originally a seal. A seal meant to be used against demons and gods. To -"

"Force them to leave."

Ichigo slowly nodded. He quickly made a glance back and saw that Acnologia was gone. He sighed. "I really am pathetic, aren't I?"

"...No, sir. You're too gentle."

Ichigo abruptly laughed at that.

"Sir...?" Then the officer saw more tears fall. "..." He kept quiet. More words would only deepen the scar that his friend felt. "I'll go and relay your orders to the snipers up there."

Ichigo quickly wiped his tears and nodded. "Go and do some good."

The officer grinned. "Ya cocky bastard," he said playfully before leaving. Thankfully, there was no one else in the area, so that would not have brought confusion to the chain of command that existed, but at least half of the Red Shields understood the deep friendship the two held, so it would not been that much of a big deal...

"Sir."

Ichigo turned around. "What is it?"

"The Earthland Fairy Tails were captured by the Royal Army."

"... They'll live," he said. for the record, he wanted to go after them and set them free. But in a world where...

Ichigo grimaced and looked at his sword, all sealed up with his own reiatsu-magic hybrid seal.

His power was too much. Too strong and demonic. Just by removing the seal, the land that he walked upon either grew corrupt from his Hollow's reiatsu or vaporized by his overpowering zanpakuto's power. His own reiatsu did little to worsen it. Just by touching someone in this world, they blew up or was shredded to pieces. He didn't exactly do that on a person, but after touching a boar to drag and cook it for the night's meal when he first came, he did realize that was what was going to happen to people. It had been a bitch to seal it up, but it worked and he was happy.

Unfortunately, by sealing it up, he lowered himself to a A-rank magician. There was no way in Edolas and Earthland that he was going to be able to rescue them anyway without backup. He could not do spare any troop as a backup, though. Every one of them was needed to lay siege to the Royal City.

So he could not help, and he was now mature enough to realize that he was needed and could not risk his life for a few... no matter how precious they were to him.

Then he blinked.

Acnologia.

He turned back to the messenger who who informed him. "Go find Acnologia. You've seen her, right?"

"Yes, I did, sir."

"Tell her where they are. Or at least where they will most likely be. That'll help them. A lot."

**-Royal Palace-**

**-Scene Break**

Now Natsu, Wendy, and Gazille felt like punching somebody. At least Natsu and Gazille did, Wendy just wanted to go eat something and have a good long sleep...

"Shit... Can't believe we got caught like this," Natsu muttered.

"At least Erza and Gray are out there."

"Really?" Wendy asked.

"Yeah," Gazille replied as he spat out a bit of blood. "But they can't break the lacryma. It seems that only we can because we are dragonslayers..."

"Is that so...? We should have gone to the lacryma first..." Wendy muttered.

"Then let's get going-!" Natsu shouted, but he tumbled and fell to the floor. He didn't get up afterwards. Or rather, he wanted to but he had no strength to help him. "Let me help."

Natsu dragged his face around and looked forward, and saw a pair of feet with a black sandal. He slowly followed the feet towards -.

Acnologia kicked him.

"What was that for?!" he shouted at her as she kneeled back to him and began to apply healing magic.

"Hush. I'm not good at fixing things up, so don't distract me," she replied. "And don't leave until I've fixed you all."

"Wait, where's Ichigo? Shouldn't he be here with you?" Natsu asked, then he immediately regretted it when he saw Acnologia tear up. "...Did he d-"

"He changed so much..." she replied, holding back a sob. "Too much."

Natsu just watched the black dragon of Apocalypse crying over her love, and he felt helpless.

**-Royal City: the Streets-**

"Move move move!" one of the Red Shield sergeant shouted as he and few other rebel soldiers jumped over a cover of broken cart. They quickly covered about 10 meters before one of his squadron lurched mid-run and fell on his knees and then head. The sergeant looked back and grimaced when he saw a arrow stuck through the man's head. He quickly turned to where the arrow came from: up ahead.

There was an entire platoon was waiting for them. "Where the hell did they come from?!" he growled as he shoved his squadron to the side to a cover of rock piles before he himself jumped on them to dodge a barrage of arrows that failed to get him and his soldiers through the rock piles.

"Get those assholes!" the Royal Army lieutenant shouted as he and a squad of shield armored soldiers charged in to kill the sergeant.

The sergeant, seeing the Royal squad charging in for a kill, dug into his backpocket and pulled out a round ball with a string. "Eat this, bastard!" he shouted as he used his gun's flintlock to light the string and tossed the ball at the squad so that it would land before them. Instead, though, the ball struck the shield and bounced up.

"HA! A ball ain't getting u-!" the lieutenant shouted as he swung down with his lacryma-boosted shield when the ball went off and created an explosion.

The sergeant, who had been on the ground when the shield chargers came over the cover to bash them, covered himself with his arms. When the explosion's smoke died out, he heard a clank, and saw a man without a head and arms on his back, and he wasn't the only one. All of his squadron members were missing a head or shoulders. The sergeant grinned. He stood up, but as soon as he did that, a single arrow struck through his neck. He fell to the side, but before he did so, three more arrows bashed his brains out.

**-POV change**

Eriana Stockholm cringed when she saw her sergeant's head become a target practice for the Royal archers. She grimaced and pushed herself on top of the cover. She pulled her rifle out. Luckily, all of the archers were distracted by their kill that they failed to see her red hood among the red ruins. She aimed at one of the archers, who seemed to be a officer, and fired.

Within a second, blood was squirting out of the man's head and she ducked just as an arrow whizzed by her head.

"You four ready?" she asked the other members of her squadron. She was next-in-command, so it was natural for her to become the leader.

The four looked at her. Some of them had uncertainty in their eyes while others had none. There was anger in another, but it all looked the same to her.

Her subordinates.

They all nodded.

"Then we toss those grenades as far as we can!"

**-POV Change- three blocks over**

"Fuck them and their fucking leader!" one of the lieutenants of the Royal Army shouted as he dodged multiple sniper bullets. He knew that the Red Shield was targeting every single officer from outside the city with their outrageous rifles, but this was too much, even if there was only Already more than half of -.

His head blew off.

The corporal right next to him growled angrily as he grabbed one of Red Shield's own grenades from one of their dead comrades, lit it like he saw them do it, and threw it at the approaching squadron of Red Shields. He grinned savagely as the grenade hit them and exploded even before they had a chance to fall back.

The Royal family was stupid enough to not fund the army to produce one of the Red Shield's own rifles, but it didn't mean that he was going to remain stupid and without a weapon like theirs!

He grabbed the rifle from the same guy who he pulled the grenade from, and aimed at the closest-.

His head also blew off.

**-POV Change-**

Ichigo thought that he was going to remain on the top of the cliff where he would command all platoons in their assault, but when he saw Royal Army's mages fight back with enough power to reduce his southern forces to half, it was enough to force him out.

"So you're the infamous Head of the Red Shield!" one of the mages in the front shouted as he swung his lacryma-powered weapon.

Ichigo stopped and looked up at the man. He was big, reaching seven foot easily.

"Well, if it isn't a brat-!"

As soon as he said that Ichigo pointed at him, and without a pause, he muttered "Cero."

**-Royal Palace-**

The four members of Earthland Fairy Tail all grunted when a large detonation of some sort struck the side of the castle, shaking the said structure to its very foundations.

"What the hell was that?!" Wendy shouted as she tried to balance herself. The attack on the castle itself was not doing any damage to the castle itself. Rather, there was a shield around the entire structure that was taking the hit: lacryma-powered shield. Unfortunately, it was weakening slowly, and once the shield fell, whatever was causing it to fall back drastically was sure to run through the castle.

The Fairy Tail's dragonslayers and the dragon was unfortunately on the other side of the castle to see anything, not that they wanted to see it. "We need to get to that lacryma. Now!" Acnologia shouted.

"I know that!" Gazille growled.

BOOOM.

"Whatever that attacked this city must have gotten through the shields," Acnologia shouted to her friends as she ran towards the lacrymas. "So get going before this place turns into a bloodbath!"

Gazille nodded and slung Wendy over his shoulders with a clean swipe. She protested furiously upon his back, demanding that he let her down, but he ignored her and just started to run.

It was at that moment that they ran into a squadron of Royal Army's soldiers while turning a corner.

The two sides just stared at each other for a millisecond before both Acnologia and the squadron leader shouted...

"FUCK!"

Natsu was the first to react. He pushed himself up to the front by kicking off Gazille's face and when he reached the front, just past Acnologia, he let loose a inferno from his mouth that swept over the squad. The squadron, having less than two seconds to react and having been shocked to the core of being attacked by a dragonslayer who was not supposed to be there, screamed as far began to burn their flesh and eat away at their armor. The fire, however, was short and weak enough only to leave most of them unconscious from sudden pain shock.

The squad leader was not one of them.

And just before he was pulled down to the ground by Natsu, he threw a knife.

Acnologia watched as the knife sail pass her cheek... Right towards Wendy.

Gazille whirled around and pulled his free hand towards the flying knife, but alas-.

Acnologia grabbed it before it passed the man's hand.

"That was too close," Natsu, who had been watching the knife fly in slow motion from where he stood on top of the squad leader, sighed.

"Let's get moving," Acnologia said as she tossed the knife over the edge of the hall they were in.

**-Scene Break**

Now, the guard at the Eastern side of the Royal City had been annihilated by Ichigo's cero. They were all turned into molecules the second Ichigo's red and black cero touched them, and the wall behind the shield did not fare well as well. There was a huge crater to the side of the main structure, though it was only a crater because Ichigo had stopped himself from killing everyone.

As of the moment, he was going after the king.

'Too late,' Ichigo thought as he used a much slower version of his shunpo; a side effect from sealing Zangetsu away: every ability of his had -from where he was after sealing 90% of his power- down to half. This meant that he was now equivalent to a normal S-rank mage in Earthland, but still a superhuman in Edolas. At any rate, the reason why he thought that he was too late was because he sensed the king get into his artificial dragon and activate it. 'Edolas's technology is certainly advance when used with a power supply like lacryma. I'm sure if they had enough of it with the right technology, they would be able to conquer Earth.'

Then he turned to his right, towards where the dragonslayers were supposed to have been held and where Acnologia was supposed to have gone with the information one of his subordinates should have provided her.

He twitched. Just thinking about her made him feel like a villian. She must have been waiting to just see him, and see him she did. But as soon as she saw him, he pushed her away. 'But it was for her own sake. Forget it, Ichigo,' he thought to himself as he remembered a talk with Edolas's Jellal.

_"I'm sorry, but it seems that your body is incapable of passing through the Anima."_

_"But I have to! Acnologia and others are waiting for me on the other side!"_

_"I'm sorry, Ichigo-san. But there is nothing I can do. Even your magic has changed; Anima won't recognize you as magic from Earthland. And even if it did recognize you as something, you would surely be teleported to another world that is not Earthland." He paused but it was brief. "But do not feel any sort of hope, dear Ichigo-san. I along have travelled to more than four worlds, and there are much more, too much more worlds, to consider coming back. Your best hope is that you will stay here, where I can relay message between you and the guild-."_

And it was right after that Ichigo saw the horrors of this world and decided that he would stay, cutting himself off from the rest of the guild. He just hoped that he would not be sucked up by the Anima.

"...Ichigo-san."

Ichigo turned around. "Jellal."

The man nodded. "I found a way to reverse all this, Ichigo-san, but I need your help."

"My help?" Ichigo frowned. "That does not sound good to me."

Jellal smirked. "It involves sending Fairy Tail back to Earthalnd, just as you wished."

"Good, good," Ichigo replied as if he had anticipated this. After all, they had discussed this several times before, and he knew that Jellal would have found a way. "Let me ask though, what will happen to the magic within this world?"

"All of it will disappear, providing Earthland with a minuscule, though still a boost of unheard of proportion, to the base of the world," Jellal replied. "I-"

BOOM.

This time, the sound came from the other side of the wartorn city; it came from the forest on the opposite side of where his snipers were placed.

Ichigo closed his eyes and let his reiatsu span out, creating a sensitive web.

Natsu.

Gazille.

Wendy.

Acnologia.

Faust, the king of Edolas.

Ichigo opened his eyes and frowned. That was weird. Things were moving too fast. Faust should have attacked him, considering that he had personally chased the old man out of his palace in the first place. So why was the old man fighting the dragonslayers.

'Should I go and help?' Ichigo thought.

'Your choice, Ichigo.'

'Oh, it's you Zangetsu.'

'Indeed, Ichigo. It's been a while since I showed myself to you,' he replied. 'I have been busy adjusting your body, both in Edolas and Earthland. Because this world is much similar to our home than Earthland, I was able to speak, instead of focus all my attention on your body's adjustments. But it is still not good enough, Ichigo. We must leave this place.'

"I see," he said outloud, confusing Jellal.

"Aren't we going to stop my father?" he asked.

Ichigo looked at him. "No," he replied. "But let's hear about that plan of yours again."

-Scene Break

Natsu growled as he stood back up after having been slapped away by hte black dragon that Faust was riding within. It was strong enough to have the word dragon within its name, but it was kind of frustrating. They were dragonslayers for a reason, for God's sake! He, Wendy, and Gazille should have already dealt with this with their combined blow!

"S-Shit..." he muttered as his legs gave out, but he stopped himlsef in the middle of it.

"You can all end this now," Fuast spoke through the speaker. "Become our world's magical energy source." There was a pause as Natsu staggered. "Depending on your attitude, I might even let you be treated well."

Natsu then fell to his knees.

Gazille moved his face to look at the fire dragonslayer, scratching his face against the ground as he did so. 'Damn it... is this it? Is this all we got?'

"Never!"

Gazille looked at Natsu as did Wendy.

"I.. I'll never give up... No, I'll squeeze out tomorrow's strength and strike you down!" he shouted as he jumped up, and slashed at the pseudo-dragon with his fire claws, but the dragon pushed him up into the sky, and he began to fall down.

Gazille stared numbly at Natsu for a while before his body began to move on its own. 'Tomorrow's share of strength, huh?' he thought as he turned his right arm into an iron pole. Then he rush-jumped at the pseudo-dragon. Then as he reached the ground with the dragon's foot between him and the ground itself, he struck at the metal, punching through it and digging deep into the ground. Then, he created a

"W-What are you doing, you impudent-!" There was a pause as the dragon didn't move. "My foot!" Faust shouted. "Let go, you imbecile!" he growled as he struck at his controls, forcing the ground to move its legs and foot. As it did so, the sheer weight and the power of the pseudo-dragon was enough to cause cracks on the ground, but Gazille held firm.

"Wendy, use your breath on me!"

"N-Natsu-san..?" Wendy said as she stood up painfully.

"Trust me!"

'...Yes, trust him.' She then steadied herself and roared.

Natsu hit the breath and was taken along with it...

But before he could carry out what he had in mind, a black burst of raw beam of energy struck the pseudo-dragon right through the chest from the side.

There was silence as the stunned dragonslayers stopped all their movement.

The pseudo-dragon didn't move as well, but it took less than four seconds after the beam struck to blow up on its spot, from above the waist.

"W-Wha...?" Natsu muttered.

They turned to see Acnologia, and realized that it was she who fired it. She had a murderous intent in her stance and her smirk showed the satisfaction that a wolf has after a kill. "Thanks for distracting him, guys," she replied. She was equally battered as the three dragonslayers, but the three knew now that getting beat up was ust a part of the plan. She relaxed. "I figured that thing couldn't be impenetrable, but it easily blocked all your attacks, so I thought there must be something to it," she said as she walked over to them. "And I was right: the pseudo-dragon could only block one side of an incoming attack."

"And you figured taht out just by..." Gazille groaned as he pulled his arm out. "You are seriously wicked."

She shrugged. "Not as much as you three though. Normal dragonslayer would have been beaten done by that thing, no matter how many came. Of course, an army of dragonslayer is something else," she grinned as she kicked away a chunk of metal.

"But you didn't have to kill him," natsu said, slightly angry about Fuast's summary execution.

"But you didn't see Ichigo talk about him," she replied, equally if not more, angry than Natsu was. "The old man was a piece of delusional trash. I hate him for changing Ichigo to what he is now, so I killed him."

The three dragonslayers looked uneasily at Acnologia. She was indeed a dragon.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go stop this-"

There was a clap of thunder above them, and they all looked up.

There was a huge black hole in the sky, and things in the shape of wild tornadoes were coming up from the ground towards it.

"Anima," Acnologia regonized immediately. "Someone ripped one open."

**-Scene Break**

"You sure about this?" E. Jellal asked as he steadied himself behind Ichigo after the said man and he unleashed the Anima. "

"I'm sure, after all," Ichigo said as he turned around to Jellal with a smile that would have the heart of the sun. "You're going to make a fine king and I get to leave this world. I get to..." A tear escaped his eyes as he remembered Acnologia's heartbroken face. "Leave everything behind and cut off all my ties."


	15. Chapter 15

**Okay, readers, this it the end of this story, and the introduction to the next story. **

**Now, unlike this story, next story will be cross-over of at least three manga, manhaw, fiction, and etc that I have not decided yet. At least the first two is decided though.**

* * *

When Ichigo woke up, he was surprised to see that he was inside a room. It wasn't his room, he was sure of it because of the room's orange ceiling. He blinked. "...What?" The only thing he remembered as far as he was concerned was that he ...

**-Flashback**

_Everyone looked at him with disgust in their eyes. _

_Natsu, Grey, Cana... All of his students._

_Acnologia, his lover._

_Fairy Tail, his family away from home. _

_The people of Edolas. _

_Edolas's Fairy Tail._

_They all stared at him as if he was some sort of monster._

_He slowly raised his hand and touched his face...Rather the mask that covered it. The skeletal structure of his hollow mask was enough to scare people, but the fact that by creating it out of nowhere and using it to literally destroy the entire structure of the Royal Palace and kill more than three hundred people trapped between it was enough to make him a monster. _

_If it was the mask alone, they might not have looked at him as if he was a demon. With fear, perhaps, but not anger... Anger because Ichigo has stained himself with the blood of innocents._

_He dropped the dead mother of three young boys right next to him, and watched as a quick soldier drag the body away, with the crying boys following after the body._

_Even Jellal, who was in this plan, had looked at him in honest disgust and anger when he had dug his teeth into that woman's neck. _

_Ichigo looked at them with his golden eyes. _

_Left._

_Right._

_Front._

_Back._

_Faces of terror only looked back._

_Even Acnologia was ... unhappy. But it was going to be over soon..._

_He turned his attention to the swirls of magic that were being sucked up by anima. It looked terrible, actually. Like a life-sucking mouth in the sky and ... tentacles that were snatching up the very foundation upon which these societies have been standing on for millenia._

_'There will be chaos... but with me gone and Jellal standing as their leader...' he thought as he looked back at the man who stood in front of him with his broken staff. _

_"**At least I got to eat some flesh before I went away...**" he grinned, and his mask grinned with him._

_Everyone paled. "**Perhaps I should eat some more...**" he licked his teeth, feigning his ... evilness. 'Push them away. That is the only way to protect them. I can't stay here.'_

_Everyone of the Fairy Tail got ready to strike just before a magic tornado took him up to the sky. "**Che. And I was so close to eat another...**"_

_"Get back here, Ichigo!" Natsu, feeling very betrayed, shouted._

_Ichigo laughed, and his distroted voice rang throughout the ruined Royal City, which he had made. "Sorry, boy. But you were too weak!" he shouted over the raging background. _

_Grow stronger. "And you won't ever see me again!"_

_I'm sorry. "Be thankful that you aren't dying!"_

_I'm sorry. "Be thankful I was forced to leave before I was done playing with you!"_

_I'm really... really sorry. _

_"See ya!"_

_Good bye._

**-Flashback end**

'Because I was sucked up by one the Animas,' Ichigo thought as he slowly raised himself up, but after he remembered his part about ... killing a woman -a mother no less- and ate her ... he felt like throwing up. But it worked. He became the evil that Edolas needed to vanquish.

"You're awake."

Ichigo turned to his left, and narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?"

The man simply sighed with a smirk and walked up to Ichigo. Ichigo didn't respond with any sort of reaction though. He simply raised his reiatsu a bit.

The man, or rather the teenager, was a thin person with brown hair and purple iris. Purple was an odd color, but who was he to say when he had hollow masks and giant meat clevers?

"Who are you?" he asked the boy.

"Me? I'm just a regular highschool student. You, on the other hand, obviously isn't because no one carries arounda real blade these days," the boy replied as he reached underneath the bed and pulled out Zangetsu, still all sealed up. He placed it on Ichigo's lap, and the man touched the object reassuringly.

"My name is Lelouch. What's your name?"

**-Scene Break**

**Fairy Tail's HQ**

"Acnologia, what's wrong?" Mirajane asked as she looked at the older looking lady. The older looking lady in question only looked about 25 of age, but she carried herself about within and outside of Fairy Tail like a very old grandmother who was bent on keeping people away from her grasp as well as a elegant lady who disdains commoner's, or stranger's, contact.

Acnologia looked up to Mirajane, the cover girl and the usual bartender of Fairy Tail. "...I've been pregnant for a while."

Mirajane blinked, and then she blushed. Finally, she paled. "Is it...?"

Acnologia nodded as she gently touched her lower abdomen. "Yes, it's Ichigo's baby."

The lively guild, which was having a fight only a moment ago, all stopped. Rather, they froze from thinking about the baby.

What one hell of a child it would become...

"Is it ... okay?" she asked him.

Acnologia looked at Mirajane in confusion. "What are you talking about?" she asked, burrowing her eyebrows in honest confusion.

"...Is it okay to ... you know, have his child?" she asked quietly.

Acnologia smiled.

Where everyone was expecting tears and sobs, she smiled instead, and it was a very sincere and heartfelt smile that no one ever saw on her face.

"I just hope -."

**-Scene Break**

Ichigo.

The man intrigued Lelouch, or otherwise known as Zero.

Lelouch, or Zero as the rest of the world knew him, was currently leading a dual life. He was being a student on Ashford Academy and the leader of Black Knights in their fight against Britannia. It was a hard business, of course, leading a dual life when one of them was a wanted man, but he knew that the could keep up with it. But when he saw Ichigo fall out of the sky during one of his transfers from the Chinese waters to Ashford Academy, he found Ichigo crashing through the atmosphere. Out of pure curiosity, Lelouch led Shinkiryu to it, and ...

Lelouch hadn't been prepared to see what he saw.

It was a horned man with skin like white marble. The mask, where the horns came out of, dissipated when Lelouch left his cockpit to check on Ichigo, and after its disappearance, found a young man. He fished him out of the water and had him brought to Ashford Academy.

Yes, he interested him very, very much... Perhaps he could convince him to join his cause to safeguard Nunually's future.

"What year is it?" Ichigo asked him as he stared off into the vast landscape before him.

Lelouch looked up to Ichigo, who had been on Ashford Academy's highest point: the bell tower's roof. The man stood there on a single foot, maintaining an impossible balance against the battering wind that was swiping at Lelouch's hair. "It's 2020. Five years since the Britannian Empire took over Area Eleven."

Ichigo nodded silently and stood up. He let his sealed and bandaged sword hang on his left waist while his Red Shield t-shirt, pair of black leather pants, and the Red Shield jacket -a black leather jacket with the Red Shield insignia (a red tower shield) on its top left chest. This was him, now. Back in his world ... but at the same time, this was not.

"...12 years ago, did anything happen?"

"You mean in 2008?" Lelouch asked. Ichigo nodded. The boy thought about it. "Ah. That's when European Union declared war on Britannia."

Ichigo frowned. On 2008, European Union didn't do shit... He furrowed his eyebrows and began to take in many factors into calculation.

One, he was dimension travelling.

Two, he was a shinigami with black dragon slayer magic.

Three, he was not home.

_**'Oi, King. I think we're not home.'**_

Ichigo gave the hollow a mental equivalent of 'No duh.'

**_'...Maybe those stupid parallel universe theories that our friend Kieog used to talk about.'_**

Ichigo frowned and then sighed in defeat. 'That makes sense. Just another Earthland... Is my soul stable here, though?'

_**'Ah hah. You're soul is stable here as any other world. At least it'll be stable for two hundred years or so before you start to go nuts.'**_

Ichigo frowned, closed his eyes, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. 'Where's Zangetsu?'

_**'He ain't speaking to anyone, right now. Something about stabilizing your soul or something.'**_

**-Scene Break**

_Hollow just sat on the edge of one of the bigger skyscrapers within Ichigo's mind, watching through Ichigo's eyes the vast skyscraper city of Tokyo._

_He really didn't like giving advises like Zangetsu did, but the man refused to talk when it was raining and because he was busy. _

_Yes, there was rain inside Ichigo's mind. Rain was striking against every window and skin exposed to it, and they came down like spears. Hichigo himself was bleeding from some cuts made here and there, but he didn't complain to his King about it. After all, he was sad about leaving behind Acnologia as well. '... We just have to live with it, King,' he thought as he slowly stood up. 'Let's just get through it together matey...'_

**-Scene Break**

Ichigo's frown was still on as if he was thinking. On the surface, he was; he wanted to know how this world was different from his and how the nations would still go to war that killed thousands. Inside, though, he was numb as he ever was.

"Ichigo."

The man looked over his shoulder. "Hmm?" It was then that Ichigo noticed difference in the boy's body posture, like a ruler commanding a subordinate. He turned away. "What?"

"What are you?"

"Hmm?" Ichigo asked as he turned around.

"When I first found you in the ghettos, you had a horned mask on. It looked very scary, but when I was about to touch it, it broke away and entered your mouth. Can you tell me what that was?" Lelouch asked. 'Information is everything... if your enemy is naive or stupid enough to release it.'

"That's my soul," he said as he slowly crouched down on his single balancing foot. "I used to be a soul reaper... but now, I'm a mix of so many things that I don't know what I am."

"Soul reaper?" Lelouch asked in suspicion. He wanted to ignore that as a simple delusion of a man but after seeing that fear-inducing mask, it was hard to do so. That and Ichigo didn't seem to be lying. "...I see." He then thought about a while. "Where do the dead go?" he asked. He was honestly curious about that. His mother died, so he wanted to know whether they just disappeared or not.

Ichigo shrugged. "In my world, there were many realms that the dead went to:

"Hell." Lelouch cringed.

"Hueco Mundo."

"Soul Society."

"Oblivion." Again, Lelouch cringed.

There was a pause before he continued. "I'm not going to explain anything and those four were the only ones I knew personally. This world is different from my own though. A parallel university with a very different path."

"What was your world like?"

Ichigo smirked. "Sorry. I may have been a straight A student back when I was in high school, but I've forgotten most about my Earth's history. One thing I can tell you is that we don't have some of the technologies that you have, but there was also no large scale wars."

"I see. It sounds like a peaceful world that my sister can live in."

Ichigo shrugged. "I'm not one to comment."

"... Where are you going to stay?"

Ichigo turned to Lelouch. "... I don't know."

"Then why don't you stay with me?"

Ichigo chuckled. "I guess that's fine, but then I don't want to go through high school again..."

"You could be our security. Or even a martial arts teachers, if you can convince Mr. Ashford to make a martial arts class."

Ichigo chuckled again, but this time it was louder. "I'm not sure if I have the qualifications of a martial artist or a teacher -"

Lelouch then got serious. "Your muscle structure is lean and despite your lean figure, a quick scan made by my shinkiryu was enough to tell me that your muscle density was very high. It was actually abnormally high for a human, one evidence that I used to weigh your words. Then there is your pose and alert attitude. Even though you act calm and thoughtful on the top of the bell tower, I saw your head move slightly around every ten minutes or so, but your eyes darted sideways much more than your head did. That and the sword. Though having a sword does not immediately make one a warrior, you carried it around with the attitude of one: one's sword is one's life, if I can't put it more eptly."

Ichigo's eyes widened a little when he heard Lelouch's analysis of himself. "You win," he said as he turned around to Lelouch. "But there must be a reason why you are inviting me to stay with you," he replied. "One does not generously give another housing, job, and food without some sort of pay off. Everything in the world is a investment, after all."

"It seems that you are smarter than your scowl suggests, Ichigo."

Ichigo felt a tick appear on his forehead. "Why you..."

"Relax, though. I'm not the one to judge others by first appearance. If I was to do so, I would have already drilled a stake through your heart." Lelouch places his fists on either side of his head and points his index finger out.

Horns.

"Ah..." Ichigo muttered. "But about my question: what are you expecting in return?"

Lelouch smiles, but his smile is too much like that of Aizen's for Ichigo's comfort.

"Your service, Ichigo. I need a strong ally, after all."

"You're not contemplating world domination... are you?"

Lelouch raised an eyebrow. "Quite the opposite, my dear Ichigo: I plan on creating a chaos to forge a new world order out of."

"...I'll pass."

"Will you at least hear me out?"

"No...?"

"Not even a minutes worth for my own troubles for cleaning you up?"

"...Fine."

**-Scene Break**

"Who is that?" Kallen asked herself when she saw Ichigo and Lelouch having a conversation on top of the bell tower. Well, Lelouch was sitting on the window, and Ichigo stood on top of it. Her eyes narrowed at how the man kept an impossible balance as she saw the wind move the heavy bronze bell. The view was made from a lower angle from the tower, giving the tower some height, though the original use for this certain camera was not bell observation. The bell occupied a small portion of the camera's whole view, but with the technology that the Black Knights had at their disposal, it was easy to get the conversation between the two men and zoom in the image and enhance the quality.

"I see," Ichigo said after Lelouch finished his explanation. Kallen pouted at this. Here she was, having only discovered his secrets after a huge event, and he just told some stranger his entire life story! She was definitely not happy. "I feel somewhat compelled to join you, now," Ichigo said as he turned around. "I'll see what happens to you and your Black Knights. And then when I see it fit, I'll come and find you."

Lelouch smiled. "How do I know that you aren't going to betray with the information I just gave you?"

Ichigo chuckled. "Well, I guess you'll just have to trust me to not get you arrested as a student."

Lelouch chuckled, but she knows what the boy is thinking already.

Geass or trust?

Geass, to Kallen, seems to be safer decision, even if it was somewhat evil. But Lelouch always thought in a different pattern from everyone else so...

"Alright then. I guess I'll just have to trust you."

Ichigo grinned before he jumped off where he stood, much to Kallen and Lelouch's shock, and then adding to their shock, he disappear with a buzz.

"So he could do something like that, huh?" Lelouch said as he closed the window. Then the rest of Lelouch's musing became a muffled noise after the window was closed, frustrating Kallen a bit.

She stood straighter and then began to wonder. 'Is he a strong fighter?'

**-Scene Break**

Somewhere else on the planet, two teenagers and a bulky man looked about the blueness that stretched as far as the eyes can see from where they stood on one of the

"Is the area clear?" the spiky black haired boy asked. He and the other two teenagers wore the uniform of the Holy Britannian Empire's Royal Guard. But unlike the Royal Guard, they had no cape, and they had no shoulder guard. It was almost like a plain jacket, but only those within the Royal Guard and the jacket's manufacturers knew that the said jackets and matching pair of jean-looking material was a high grade carbon fiber clothing with microscopic plating running on top of each other, giving the clothes an impossibly smooth surface. Unlike the rest of the Royal Guard behind them, though, they each had a tattoo on their face. All of them were simple, with a single line and few dots and dashes, but they fit the people that bore them so perfectly that one might wonder if they were born with it (But of course, no one is actually stupid enough to believe that). Highly convincing, but unlikely.

Of course, all of this meant that these Royal Guards were special even within the Royal Guard.

The shorter girl with silver hair shook her head as she opened her eyes. "My Trance net hasn't been able to pick anyone up yet. But that is to be expected: we are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean."

Yoshina Ageha scoffed. Yes, that was true. They were doing nothing here, and it was pissing him off -not to mention the fact that it was because he could have been going on a date with Sakurako...

"Oi, are you sure about that intel about an interdimensional being? I mean, that kind of shit didn't appear for quite a while."

The two turned to the third.

Girgori #1, or Grana as everyone came to call him, was the commander/general in charge of this recovery operation. And he was also the potty mouth.

"Last time I checked,_ sir_," Ageha began, stressing the last word spoken. "You're quite an art yourself."

Grana grinned maniacally. "Don't mind if I continue to be that art, Major Ageha. Or should I say the Knight of A?"

"I prefer my military title, sir."

"Even if with the rank of Knight of A you can cuss at me all you want?"

"... My sister would kill me if I did something like that."

Grana chuckled. Ageha's sister may not a famous person or whatnot, but she was a stubborn older sister bent on teaching the right things to her little brother when she can... Or teach him to at least do what she told him to do in front of her. Grana met the woman few times, and he had to say that she almost scared him.

Keyword: almost.

"You two are weird as ever..."

The said two man turned around to see a third. "Schneizel," Grana grunted.

The said man walked up the three after having made a large pathway when the Royal Guard cleared themselves for him.

The Royal Guards aboard this airship, the Miracle (an Avalon-class ship that Schneizel made for himself), were his loyal allies, ones loyal to him and not Charles vi Britannia, which explains for how Schneizel stood at their head as he did now.

"Well?"

"Sorry, sir, we could not find the being," Sakurako replied. "But the intel seemed to be right. I found traces of ... abnormal PSI -mixture of trance, burst, and rise- around here. But waves did their job of spreading the trace though."

"I see..." the Second Prince of Holy Britannia Empire replied. "Then we'll head back and hope that this being is not here to cause us problem."

**-End of Chapter 15 and the Story of the Black Dragon Slayer, Kurosaki Ichigo.**

_HHHEEEYYY!_

_Okay, for those of you familiar with Psyren, here it is. I attempted a lot of Psyren stories, but I always scrapped them and turned to Bleach, considering that it was easier for me. _

_But the main part for my next story is Code Geass. Espers, or PSI users, are more like details for the story. Well, considering that Ichigo is also just a detail ..._

_So this is the end of BDS KI. A bit of a shorter story than I would have liked, but eh..._

_For the next story, I'll try my best to update it on a regular basis, most likely on a biweekly schedule since I have college things to do. Maybe even triweekly and updates here and there when I feel like there is a need._

War of Gods on Earth_. Expect it._


	16. Chapter 16

Hello readers.

It's been a while since I wrote a chapter or added a story, hasn't it been?

Anyway, this is the response to some of the questions that I received.

1. What now?

A: Black Dragon Slayer is obviously done, and I did plan a sequel to it. However, while getting the story ready, my muse ran out... again, and the said muse flowed back into a certain idea that has been bugging me for the last three years.

I will post a story shortly after this, and that story will be that idea.

Sorry if you were one of the readers that were frustrated by how this story turned out to be.

Let's all pray that this next story will be better.

With all sincerity,

Arms of Loneliness.


	17. Not a Chapter, but a alert!

It's OUT!

The sequel to this story: I wanred you, I want my nap!

The new idea story: Rot til the End of Time


End file.
